Low vitamin D concentrations and BMI are causal factors for primary biliary cholangitis: A mendelian randomization study

Summary

Backgrounds: Observational studies have identified associations between smoking, alcohol use, body mass index (BMI), and the levels of vitamin D with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC). However, there was a lack of randomization control studies to estimate the causal relationship. This study was to investigate the causal estimates for the effects of those risk factors on PBC. Methods: The genetic instrument variants were extracted from genome-wide association studies in European ancestry. Two-sample mendelian randomization (MR) and multivariable mendelian randomization were used to determine genetically causal estimates. Primary analyses consisted of random-effects and fix-mode inverse-variance-weighted methods, followed by secondary sensitivity analyses to verify the results. Results: =0.0