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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Thyroid Endocrinology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1360851
This article is part of the Research Topic Perinatal and Post-Natal Life: Metabolism and Health Outcomes View all articles

Association of circulating vitamin levels with thyroid diseases: A Mendelian randomization study

Provisionally accepted
Wenke Zhang Wenke Zhang Erhao Liu Erhao Liu Huafa Que Huafa Que *
  • Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China

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

    Background: Previous observational studies have shown conflicting results of vitamins supplementation for thyroid diseases. The causal relationships between vitamins and thyroid diseases are unclear. Therefore, we conducted a two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) study to explore association of circulating vitamin levels with thyroid diseases. Methods: We performed a bidirectional MR analysis using genome-wide association study (GWAS) data. Genetic tool variables for circulating vitamin levels include vitamins A, B9, B12, C, D, and E, Genetic tool variables of thyroid diseases include autoimmune hyperthyroidism, autoimmune hypothyroidism, thyroid nodules(TNs), and Thyroid cancer(TC). Inverse-variance weighted multiplicative random effects (IVW-RE) was mainly used for MR Analysis, weighted median(WM) and MR Egger were used as supplementary methods to evaluate the relationships between circulating vitamin levels and thyroid diseases. Sensitivity and pluripotency were evaluated by Cochran's Q test, MR-PRESSO, Radial MR, MR-Egger regression and leave-one-out analysis.Results: Positive MR evidence suggested that circulating vitamin C level is a protective factor in autoimmune hypothyroidism(ORIVW-RE=0.69, 95%CI: 0.58-0.83, p = 1.05E-04). Reverse MR Evidence showed that genetic susceptibility to autoimmune hyperthyroidism is associated with reduced level of circulating vitamin A(ORIVW-RE = 0.97, 95% CI: 0.95 -1.00, p = 4.38E-02), genetic susceptibility of TNs was associated with an increased level of circulating vitamin D(ORIVW-RE = 1.02, 95% CI:1.00 -1.03, p = 6.86E-03). No causal and reverse causal relationship was detected between other circulating vitamin levels and thyroid diseases.Our findings provide genetic evidence supporting a bi-directional causal relationship between circulating vitamin levels and thyroid diseases. These findings provide information for the clinical application of vitamins prevention and treatment of thyroid diseases.

    Keywords: Vitamins, Autoimmune hyperthyroidism, Autoimmune hypothyroidism, thyroid nodules, thyroid cancer, Mendelian randomization, Causal effect

    Received: 24 Dec 2023; Accepted: 10 May 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhang, Liu and Que. 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: Huafa Que, Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 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.