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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Clinical Nutrition
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1454648

Dietary fatty acids and gallstone risk: insights from NHANES and Mendelian randomization analysis

Provisionally accepted
Minghe Wang Minghe Wang Jintao Guo Jintao Guo Siyu Sun Siyu Sun *
  • Department of Gastroenterology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Prior research suggests polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) may prevent gallstones, but evidence on saturated fatty acids (SFA) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) is limited. This study aims to explore the associations between fatty acids and gallstones using a large sample of American population and Mendelian randomization (MR) methods.The cross-sectional study involved 6,629 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2017-2020. Logistic regression and restricted cubic spline (RCS) analysis were conducted after stratifying by gender subgroups. Two-sample MR analysis was used to explore the causal relationship between fatty acids and gallstones without confounding factors.In females, higher SFA intake was positively associated with gallstone risk, while higher intake of n-3 and n-6 PUFA was negatively associated. No significant associations were found in males. No nonlinear correlations were found in any group by RCS analysis. MR analysis indicated that SFA, n-3 and n-6 PUFA could reduce gallstone risk.The influence of dietary fatty acid composition on gallstone development differs by gender, providing insights into dietary prevention and treatment of gallstones.

    Keywords: fatty acid, gallstone, Cross-sectional study, NHANES, Mendelian randomization

    Received: 25 Jun 2024; Accepted: 31 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wang, Guo and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Siyu Sun, Department of Gastroenterology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.