Journal Article

Roles for circulating polyunsaturated fatty acids in ischemic stroke and modifiable factors: a Mendelian randomization study

Li, Yunxia, Liu, Congcong, Wang, Bojie, Li, Wenchao, Xue, Fuzhong, Si, Shucheng, Hou, Lei, Liu, Yanxun, Chen, Xiaolu, Yuan, Tonghui, Li, Jiqing

2020

Overview

Background Available data about the effects of circulating polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) on ischemic stroke (IS) and its main risk factors remains limited and conflicting. Therefore, we conducted Mendelian randomization (MR) to assess whether genetically predicted PUFA affected IS, lipids and blood pressure (BP). Methods Genetic instruments associated with IS were derived from ISGC Consortium ( n  = 29,633), with lipids were derived from GLGC( n  = 188,577), with BP were derived from Neale Lab( n  = 337,000). The inverse-variance weighted method was the main analysis to estimate the effect of exposure on outcome. Sensitivity analyses included principal components analysis, MR-Egger, weighted median, and weighted mode. Results Per SD increases in serum α-linolenic acid (ALA) were associated with lower IS risk, with odd ratio (OR) of 0.867(0.782,0.961), arachidonic acid (AA) were associated with higher IS risk (OR: 1.053(1.014,1.094)). Likewise, Per SD increases in ALA were associated with the lower-level low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), total cholesterol (TC) ( β :-0.122(− 0.144, − 0.101), − 0.159(− 0.182, − 0.135), − 0.148(− 0.171, − 0.126), respectively), AA were associated with the higher-level of LDL-C, HDL-C and TC ( β :0.045(0.034,0.056), 0.059(0.050,0.067), 0.055(0.046,0.063), respectively). Linoleic acid (LA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) had little or no association with IS, lipids or BP at Bonferroni-corrected significance. Different analytic methods supported these findings. The intercept test of MR-Egger implied no pleiotropy. Conclusions High-level plasma ALA was protective for IS but AA was the opposite. LA, EPA, DHA, and DPA had no effects on IS.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Age / Analysis / Arachidonic acid / Bias / Blood pressure / blood serum / Cardiovascular disease / Cholesterol / Clinical Nutrition / Consortia / Docosahexaenoic acid / docosapentaenoic acid / Eicosapentaenoic acid / Essential fatty acids / Fatty acids / Genetics / Genomes / Health Promotion and Disease Prevention / High density lipoprotein / high density lipoprotein cholesterol / Ischemia / Ischemic stroke / Linoleic acid / Linolenic acid / Lipids / Low density lipoprotein / low density lipoprotein cholesterol / Low density lipoproteins / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Mendelian randomization / methodology / Mortality / nutrition / Omega-3 fatty acids / Omega-6 fatty acids / Pleiotropy / Polyunsaturated fatty acids / principal component analysis / Principal components analysis / Prognosis / Risk factors / Sensitivity analysis / Stroke / Unsaturated fatty acids