Mendelian randomization indicates causal effects of estradiol levels on kidney function in males

M Kamal Nasr; Claudia Schurmann; Erwin P Böttinger; Alexander Teumer

doi:10.3389/fendo.2023.1232266

Mendelian randomization indicates causal effects of estradiol levels on kidney function in males

Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2023 Dec 19:14:1232266. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1232266. eCollection 2023.

Authors

M Kamal Nasr^{1

2

3

4}, Claudia Schurmann², Erwin P Böttinger^{2

5}, Alexander Teumer^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Community Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
² Digital Health Center, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
³ DZHK (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research), Partner Site Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
⁵ Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health at Mount Sinai, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States.

Abstract

Context: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a public health burden worldwide. Epidemiological studies observed an association between sex hormones, including estradiol, and kidney function.

Objective: We conducted a Mendelian randomization (MR) study to assess a possible causal effect of estradiol levels on kidney function in males and females.

Design: We performed a bidirectional two-sample MR using published genetic associations of serum levels of estradiol in men (n = 206,927) and women (n = 229,966), and of kidney traits represented by estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR, n = 567,460), urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR, n = 547,361), and CKD (n = 41,395 cases and n = 439,303 controls) using data obtained from the CKDGen Consortium. Additionally, we conducted a genome-wide association study using UK Biobank cohort study data (n = 11,798 men and n = 6,835 women) to identify novel genetic associations with levels of estradiol, and then used these variants as instruments in a one-sample MR.

Results: The two-sample MR indicated that genetically predicted estradiol levels are significantly associated with eGFR in men (beta = 0.077; p = 5.2E-05). We identified a single locus at chromosome 14 associated with estradiol levels in men being significant in the one-sample MR on eGFR (beta = 0.199; p = 0.017). We revealed significant results with eGFR in postmenopausal women and with UACR in premenopausal women, which did not reach statistical significance in the sensitivity MR analyses. No causal effect of eGFR or UACR on estradiol levels was found.

Conclusions: We conclude that serum estradiol levels may have a causal effect on kidney function. Our MR results provide starting points for studies to develop therapeutic strategies to reduce kidney disease.

Keywords: albuminuria; causality; genome-wide association study; glomerular filtration rate; steroids.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cohort Studies
Estradiol
Female
Genome-Wide Association Study
Humans
Kidney
Male
Mendelian Randomization Analysis*
Renal Insufficiency, Chronic* / etiology
Renal Insufficiency, Chronic* / genetics

Substances

Estradiol

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. MKN was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)—451892213; 455978266. We acknowledge support for the Article Processing Charge by the German Research Foundation and the Open Access Publication Fund of the University of Greifswald.