Obesity, Lifestyle Habits and Nutrients in Relation to Oral Ulcers: A Comprehensive Mendelian Randomization Study

Previous studies demonstrated a potential association between obesity, lifestyle habits, nutrients and mouth ulcers. However, this relationship remains inadequately examined. The current study seeks to further explore the associations between exposures and mouth ulcers, employing a Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to evaluate causality.

Genetic variants identified in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of eight exposures were employed as instrumental variables. This study utilized Univariable MR (UVMR), multivariable MR (MVMR), and mediation MR approaches.

The study uncovered a causal relationship between 6 exposures and mouth ulcers via UVMR and Meta-UVMR. After adjusting for confounding factors through MVMR, there was still a significant positive correlation between alcohol consumption (odds ratios (95% confidence intervals): OR (95%CI) = 1.0184 (1.0049,1.0321), FDR = 0.02), body mass index (BMI) (OR (95%CI) = 1.0104 (1.0050,1.0157), FDR < 0.001) are positively correlated with mouth ulcers, while there was a negative correlation between sleep duration (OR (95%CI) = 0.9773 (0.9648,0.9899), FDR = 0.002) and mouth ulcers. Mediation analysis indicated that 12 mediators may play a mediating role in the pathogenesis of alcohol consumption-mouth ulcers, 2 mediators in BMI-mouth ulcers, and 5 mediators in sleep duration-mouth ulcers.

The causal relationship between the three exposures (alcohol consumption, BMI, and sleep duration) and mouth ulcers was analyzed, partially mediated by circulating cytokines, metabolites, and plasma proteomes.