Bone morphogenetic protein 10 and atrial fibrillation

The association between bone morphogenetic protein 10 (BMP10) and atrial fibrillation (AF) has been widely investigated by observational studies, but their causal relationships remain inconclusive. Here, we aimed to evaluate the causal effect of BMP10 on the risk of AF through single-nucleotide polymorphisms.

A Mendelian randomization (MR) analytic framework was applied to data from two BMP10-specific genome-wide association studies comprising a total of 11,036,163 single-nucleotide polymorphisms of European ancestry. Instrument genetic variants associated with BMP10 were selected. A total of 12 AF-specific genome-wide association studies comprising a total of 5,095,117 European participants were included. Summary statistic-based methods of inverse variance weighted, MR Egger, weighted median, simple mode, and weighted mode methods were used. Pleiotropy and sensitivity were assessed.

Specific to AF-specific genome-wide association studies, we found that BMP10 was not associated with AF among different methods (all P > 0.05). We further identified no significant horizontal pleiotropy (all P > 0.05) and no fundamental impact among various data.

This large-scale population study upon data from BMP10- and AF-specific genome-wide association studies and a longitudinal biobank cohort indicates plausible non-causal associations between BMP10 and AF in the European populations. Further studies regarding ancestral diversity are warranted to validate such causal associations.