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Autoimmune diseases and risk of gestational diabetes mellitus: a Mendelian randomization study

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Abstract

Aims

Observational studies have reported that autoimmune diseases are associated with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), but the causality is unknown. The study aimed to evaluate the potential causal effect of autoimmune diseases on GDM.

Methods

A two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study was designed using the summary statistics of GDM (123,579 individuals) and three common autoimmune diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD, 59,957 individuals), rheumatoid arthritis (RA, 80,799 individuals) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, 14,267 individuals), from the genome-wide association study (GWAS). The fixed-effects inverse variance weighted (IVW) was used to deduce the causal association between autoimmune diseases and GDM, and sensitivity analyses were further performed.

Results

The inverse variance weighting (IVW) method showed that RA and SLE increased the risk of GDM (RA: OR = 1.076, 95%CI = 1.033–1.122, P = 4.649E-04; SLE: OR = 1.025, 95%CI = 1.001–1.049, P = 0.044). But there were no any associations of IBD with GDM (P > 0.05). No significant horizontal pleiotropy was found by MR Egger regression (IBD: P for intercept = 0.905; RA: P for intercept = 0.103; SLE = P for intercept = 0.608).

Conclusion

This two-sample MR study found that both SLE and RA are positively associated with the risk of GDM. Our findings provide help for the future prevention and treatment of GDM to reduce associated maternal and fetal complications. However, more research is needed to obviate the role of the GC and the HCQ to ensure this relationship is causal.

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Availability of data and material

The datasets analyzed in this study are publicly available summary statistics.

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Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank the researchers and the participants of the original GWASs for the collection and management of the large-scale data resources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, 350005, China

    Xia Zhang, Xiuyan Wu, Lihong Chen & Lidan He

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National Regional Medical Center, Binhai Campus of the First Affiliated Hospital, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, 350212, China

    Xia Zhang, Xiuyan Wu, Lihong Chen & Lidan He

Authors
  1. Xia Zhang
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  3. Lihong Chen
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  4. Lidan He
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Contributions

XZ conducted the data analysis and drafted the manuscript. XZ and XW participated in mining the database and drafting the manuscript. XW took responsibility of the tables and figures of the results. LC and LH designed the study, revised the manuscript, and provided technical support. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lidan He.

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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Ethical approval was not needed for this current study because it is a secondary analysis of previously published data.

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This article belongs to the topical collection Pregnancy and Diabetes, managed by Antonio Secchi and Marina Scaviniâ.

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Zhang, X., Wu, X., Chen, L. et al. Autoimmune diseases and risk of gestational diabetes mellitus: a Mendelian randomization study. Acta Diabetol 61, 161–168 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-023-02190-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-023-02190-0

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