Causal role of immune cells in inflammatory bowel disease: A Mendelian randomization study

Abstract

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is characterized by an inflammatory response closely related to the immune system, but the relationship between inflammation and IBD remains unclear. We performed a comprehensive 2-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to determine the causal relationship between immune cell characteristics and IBD. Using publicly available genetic data, we explored the relationship between 731 immune cell characteristics and IBD risk. Inverse-variance weighting was the primary analytical method. To test the robustness of the results, we used the weighted median-based, MR-Egger, simple mode, and mode-based methods. Finally, we performed a reverse MR analysis to assess the possibility of reverse causality. We identified suggestive associations between 2 immune cell traits and IBD risk (P = 4.18 × 10–5 for human leukocyte antigen-DR on CD14+ monocytes, OR: 0.902; 95% CI: 0.859–0.947; for CD39+ CD4+ T cells, P = 6.24 × 10–5; OR: 1.042; 95% CI: 1.021–1.063). Sensitivity analysis results of these immune cell traits were consistent. In reverse MR analysis, we found no statistically significant association between IBD and these 2 cell traits. Our study demonstrates the close connection between immune cells and IBD using MR, providing guidance for future clinical and basic research.