Causal Association Between Tea Consumption and Bone Health: A Mendelian Randomization Study

Abstract

BackgroundMuch observational research reported that tea consumption decreases the risk of osteoarthritis (OA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and osteoporosis (OP) which are the three major bone disorders. However, the observed correlation is inconclusive. To determine the causal relationship between genetically predicted tea intake and OA, RA, and OP, we performed a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study based on large samples.MethodsThe European population’s genome-wide association meta-analysis (GWAS) dataset identified SNPs associated with tea consumption was obtained from Neale Lab’s analysis of UK Biobank data that comprised 349,376 participants of European ancestry. We extracted genetic data for knee OA (17,885 controls and 4,462 cases), hip OA (50,898 controls and 12,625 cases), and RA (43,923 controls and 14,361 cases) from the UK Biobank and OP cases (93083 controls and 1,175 cases) from FinnGen Data Freeze 2. A MR study was conducted to examine the effect of selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and OA, RA, and OP risk. Several sensitivity analyses were performed with weighted median and inverse-variance weighted methods for estimating the causal effects.ResultsIn this MR study, the genetically predicted per one cup increase of tea consumption was not associated with knee OA (OR 1.11,95% CI: 0.79–1.55) using IVW with random effect. Genetic predisposition to tea consumption was not associated with hip OA (OR: 1.20, 95% CI: 0.84–1.71), RA (OR: 1.24 95% CI: 0.81–1.91), and OP (OR: 1.11, 95% CI: 0.89, 1.39). Following the sensitivity analysis, there was no potential pleiotropy.ConclusionAccording to our study, According to our study, there was no statistical power to confirm a causal relationship between tea consumption and the risk of knee OA, hip OA, RA, and OP.

Genetically predicted tea intake increases the risk of osteoarthritis: A Mendelian randomization study

“…This preliminary finding was deduced based on observational study, which could not overcome endogeneity. By contrast, Chet et al determined no causal association between tea intake and OA (knee OA and hip OA) by using MR method ( Chen et al, 2022 ). However, in their studies, the odds ratios were greater than 1.00 with marginal significance (1.11 for knee OA; 1.20 for hip OA), indicating the likelihood of less statistical power.…”

Development and internal validation of a clinical prediction model for osteopenia in Chinese middle-aged and elderly men: a prospective cohort study

“…Catechin, the main polyphenols found in green tea with potent anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, can enhance osteoblastogenesis by enhancing osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and increasing osteoblastic survival, proliferation, differentiation, and mineralization [ 49 ]. In addition, a two-sample Mendelian randomization study discovered that there was no statistical power to confirm a causal relationship between tea consumption and the risk of OP [ 50 ]. However, in this study, we found that tea consumption was a risk factor for osteopenia.…”

Potential mechanism of tea for treating osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis

“…However, there are limitations in terms of the study population, the size of the population, or the quality of the data. Meanwhile, some clinical studies or meta-analyses have revealed that tea consumption does not improve the clinical performance of patients or reduce the risk of OP, OA, or RA ( 124 ). Considering the diversity of active ingredients in tea, in addition to ingredients such as EGCG and EC, which play a positive role, other ingredients, such as caffeine, increase the risk of fracture, OP, or OA and can be an influencing factor in the therapeutic effects of tea.…”