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Updated: Jun 8, 2025

Author Spotlight: Studying the Impact of Maternal Dietary Deficiencies on Long-Term Offspring Health Outcomes
Published on: June 28, 2024
Causal relationships of familial hypercholesterolemia with the risk of multiple vitamin deficiencies: a Mendelian
Cheng Zhang1, Gang Wei2, Huan Zhou1
1National Drug Clinical Trial Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical University, Bengbu, Anhui, China.
Background:
The causal relationship between familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) and various vitamin deficiencies has not yet been elucidated. Therefore, this study investigated the cause-and-effect relationship between FH and the risk of multiple vitamin deficiencies in humans.
Methods:
Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed by extracting six datasets for FH, FH with ischemic heart disease (IHD), and vitamin deficiency (vitamin A, thiamine, other B-group vitamins, and vitamin D) from the FinnGen study, covering a total of 329,115; 316,290; 354,932; 354,949; 355,411 and 355,238 individuals, respectively.
Results:
FH was suggestively associated with higher odds of thiamine deficiency [inverse variance weighted odds ratio (ORIVW) 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.62 (1.03, 2.55), P = 0.036] and vitamin D deficiencies [ORIVW CI: 1.35 (1.04, 1.75), P = 0.024], low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) rs112898275 variant, rs11591147 and rs499883 in proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9 (PCSK9), rs9644862 in cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2 B antisense RNA1 (CDKN2B-AS1), and rs142834163 in dedicator of cytokinesis 6 (DOCK6) and rs115478735 in ABO blood group (ABO) strongly influenced the risk of thiamine deficiency, while the rs7412 variant in apolipoprotein E (APOE) mostly influenced the risk of vitamin D deficiency. FH with IHD was suggestively associated with higher odds of vitamin D deficiency (ORIVW, weighted median [WM][95%CI]: 1.31 [1.05, 1.64]; 1.47 [1.10, 1.97]) (P = 0.018; 0.010) without any single significant SNPs observed.
Conclusion:
FH was positively associated with increased risks of thiamine and vitamin D deficiencies, revealing a prospective and unfortunate complication of FH.
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