TY - JOUR
T1 - The role of cortisol in ischemic heart disease, ischemic stroke, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease risk factors
T2 - a bi-directional Mendelian randomization study
AU - Kwok, Man Ki
AU - Kawachi, Ichiro
AU - Rehkopf, David
AU - Schooling, Catherine Mary
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - Background: Cortisol, a steroid hormone frequently used as a biomarker of stress, is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). To clarify whether cortisol causes these outcomes, we assessed the role of cortisol in ischemic heart disease (IHD), ischemic stroke, T2DM, and CVD risk factors using a bi-directional Mendelian randomization (MR) study. Methods: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) strongly (P < 5 × 10−6) and independently (r2 < 0.001) predicting cortisol were obtained from the CORtisol NETwork (CORNET) consortium (n = 12,597) and two metabolomics genome-wide association studies (GWAS) (n = 7824 and n = 2049). They were applied to GWAS of the primary outcomes (IHD, ischemic stroke and T2DM) and secondary outcomes (adiposity, glycemic traits, blood pressure and lipids) to obtain estimates using inverse variance weighting, with weighted median, MR-Egger, and MR-PRESSO as sensitivity analyses. Conversely, SNPs predicting IHD, ischemic stroke, and T2DM were applied to the cortisol GWAS. Results: Genetically predicted cortisol (based on 6 SNPs from CORNET; F-statistic = 28.3) was not associated with IHD (odds ratio (OR) 0.98 per 1 unit increase in log-transformed cortisol, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.93–1.03), ischemic stroke (0.99, 95% CI 0.91–1.08), T2DM (1.00, 95% CI 0.96–1.04), or CVD risk factors. Genetically predicted IHD, ischemic stroke, and T2DM were not associated with cortisol. Conclusions: Contrary to observational studies, genetically predicted cortisol was unrelated to IHD, ischemic stroke, T2DM, or CVD risk factors, or vice versa. Our MR results find no evidence that cortisol plays a role in cardiovascular risk, casting doubts on the cortisol-related pathway, although replication is warranted.
AB - Background: Cortisol, a steroid hormone frequently used as a biomarker of stress, is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). To clarify whether cortisol causes these outcomes, we assessed the role of cortisol in ischemic heart disease (IHD), ischemic stroke, T2DM, and CVD risk factors using a bi-directional Mendelian randomization (MR) study. Methods: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) strongly (P < 5 × 10−6) and independently (r2 < 0.001) predicting cortisol were obtained from the CORtisol NETwork (CORNET) consortium (n = 12,597) and two metabolomics genome-wide association studies (GWAS) (n = 7824 and n = 2049). They were applied to GWAS of the primary outcomes (IHD, ischemic stroke and T2DM) and secondary outcomes (adiposity, glycemic traits, blood pressure and lipids) to obtain estimates using inverse variance weighting, with weighted median, MR-Egger, and MR-PRESSO as sensitivity analyses. Conversely, SNPs predicting IHD, ischemic stroke, and T2DM were applied to the cortisol GWAS. Results: Genetically predicted cortisol (based on 6 SNPs from CORNET; F-statistic = 28.3) was not associated with IHD (odds ratio (OR) 0.98 per 1 unit increase in log-transformed cortisol, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.93–1.03), ischemic stroke (0.99, 95% CI 0.91–1.08), T2DM (1.00, 95% CI 0.96–1.04), or CVD risk factors. Genetically predicted IHD, ischemic stroke, and T2DM were not associated with cortisol. Conclusions: Contrary to observational studies, genetically predicted cortisol was unrelated to IHD, ischemic stroke, T2DM, or CVD risk factors, or vice versa. Our MR results find no evidence that cortisol plays a role in cardiovascular risk, casting doubts on the cortisol-related pathway, although replication is warranted.
KW - Cardiovascular disease
KW - Cortisol
KW - Diabetes
KW - Mendelian randomization
KW - Risk factors
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85096666952&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s12916-020-01831-3
DO - 10.1186/s12916-020-01831-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 33243239
AN - SCOPUS:85096666952
VL - 18
JO - BMC Medicine
JF - BMC Medicine
IS - 1
M1 - 363
ER -