The impact of growth differentiation factor 15 on the risk of cardiovascular disease: evidence from Mendelian randomization study

Abstract

Background: Growth differentiation factor 15(GDF-15) concentration is apparently associated with cardiovascular disease, but whether there is a causal relationship has not been testified. Methods: We utilized Mendelian randomization to assess the function of GDF-15 in incidence of cardiovascular disease. The single-nucleotide polymorphism- GDF-15 association evaluations came from meta-analysis of genome-wide association study (GWAS). Besides inverse-variance weighted, MR-Egger test and weighted median method were applied to examine sensitivity. Results: Based on the instruments, GDF-15 level linked to the increasing risk of cardioembolic stroke (1.06, OR 1.09 per SD increase, 95% CI 1.01, 1.19) , atrial fibrillation (OR 1.03 per SD increase, 95% CI 1.0, 1.06), coronary artery disease (OR 0.94 per SD increase, 95% CI 0.89, 0.99) and myocardial infarction (OR 0.94 per SD increase, 95% CI 0.90, 0.98). However, the significant causal relationship between GDF-15 and the other cardiovascular diseases was not found in our study. Conclusions: The result suggested that GDF-15 was causally associated with the risk of cardioembolic stroke,atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction, providing us conceivable strategies to alleviate the burden of cardiovascular disease.