Gut microbiota and venous thromboembolism: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study Gut microbiota and venous thromboembolism

Abstract

Abstract Background Recent studies have suggested an association between gut microbiota (GM) and venous thromboembolism (VTE). However, observational studies cannot indicate causality and population-level studies with a higher evidence level for causality are lacking. Therefore, our study aimed to explore the causal association of GM and VTE. Methods This study utilized the summary-level data of respective genome-wide association study for 196 gut microbial taxa and VTE. Two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) design was deployed and comprehensively sensitive analyses were followed to validate the robustness of results. We used the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method, the weighted median method, weighted mode method, simple mode method, MR-Egger regression, MR-Egger intercept test, Cochrane’s Q-test, outlier test, and leave-one-out analysis as the primary analysis. Results We identified suggestive associations between 17 bacterial traits and the risk of VTE. Porphyromonadaceae (IVW odds ratio (OR): 1.3729, p = 0.0035) and Cyanobacteria (IVW OR: 1.2151, p = 0.0048) were associated with increased risk of VTE. Three gut microbiota taxa (Eubacteriumrectalegroup (IVW OR: 1.0038, p = 0.0278), Coprococcus2 (IVW OR: 1.0041, p = 0.0063), and LachnospiraceaeUCG001 (IVW OR: 1.0041, p = 0.0009) were predicted to play a causal role in enhancing the risk of encompassing deep vein thrombosis. And three gut microbiota taxa (Christensenellaceae (IVW OR: 1.0023, p = 0.0497), Streptococcaceae (IVW OR: 1.0031, p = 0.0279), Victivallaceae (IVW OR: 1.0014, p = 0.0493) were positively associated with pulmonary embolism. Conclusions This study suggested the role of the specific GM on the risk for VTE, which may provide new ideas and a theoretical basis for the prevention and treatment of VTE in the future.