The causal relationship between blood metabolites and rosacea: A Mendelian randomization

An increasing amount of research demonstrates that metabolic disorders are related to rosacea. However, the correlations and causal relationships among them remain unknown.

We conducted not only forward 2-sample MR (Mendelian randomization) analyses but also reverse MR analyses which showed positive results in the forward MR analysis. In the forward MR analyses, inverse-variance weighted (IVW) and MR-Egger were performed as MR analyses. Cochran's Q test and the MR-Egger Intercept were used for sensitivity analyses. Concerning reverse MR analyses, IVW, MR-Egger, weighted median, simple mode, and weighted mode were applied. Cochran's Q test, MR-Egger Intercept, and MR pleiotropy residual sum and outlier (MR-PRESSO) outlier test were applied as sensitivity analyses.

A total of 24 metabolites and 1 metabolite ratio were shown to have a causal effect on rosacea. N-lactoyl phenylalanine (N-Lac-Phe) was estimated as statistically significant by Bonferroni correction. Interestingly, we found three metabolites that were negatively associated with rosacea, especially caffeine, which are in line with the results of a large cohort study of females. For reverse MR analysis, we revealed that rosacea could potentially decrease the generation of two metabolites: octadecenedioate (C18:1-DC) and methyl vanillate sulfate.

This study identified blood metabolites that may be associated with the development of rosacea. However, the exact mechanism by which these positive metabolites influence rosacea remains uncertain due to the paucity of experimental investigations. The combination of genetics and metabolomics offers novel viewpoints on the research of underlying mechanisms of rosacea and has significant value in screening and prevention of rosacea.