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. 2024 Feb;32(2):220-225.
doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2023.11.003. Epub 2023 Nov 10.

Genetic association between atopic disease and osteoarthritis

Matthew C Baker  1 , William H Robinson  2 , Quinn Ostrom  3
Affiliations

Genetic association between atopic disease and osteoarthritis

Matthew C Baker et al. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2024 Feb.

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the association between genetically determined risk for atopic disease and osteoarthritis (OA).

Methods: We performed linkage disequilibrium (LD) score regression using 1000 Genomes Project European samples as a reference for patterns of genome-wide LD. Summary statistics for atopic disease traits were obtained from the UK Biobank. We generated a pairwise genetic correlation between OA and traits for atopic disease to estimate the genetic correlation between traits (rg) and heritability for each trait. The association between atopy-related traits and OA was examined using Mendelian randomization (MR) on summary statistics; we reported inverse-variance weighted (IVW), MR-Egger, maximum likelihood estimation, weighted median, and weighted mode.

Results: There was a significant positive correlation between the genome-wide genetic architecture of asthma and all OA traits. Using the IVW (random effects), there was a significant association between asthma and knee OA ((odds ratio) OR = 1.04, 95% (confidence interval) CI 1.01-1.08, p = 0.0169). Using IVW (fixed effects), significant associations were identified between knee OA and allergic disease (OR = 1.07, 95% CI 1.01-1.14, p = 0.0342), allergic rhinitis (OR = 1.07, 95% CI 1.00-1.13, p = 0.0368), and asthma (OR = 1.04, 95% CI 1.01-1.07, p = 0.0139), as well as for OA at any site and asthma (OR = 1.02, 95% CI 1.00-1.04, p = 0.0166).

Conclusions: We found a significant correlation between the overall genetic architecture of asthma and OA, as well as an increased risk of developing OA in patients with genetic variants associated with asthma and allergic rhinitis; predominately, this risk was for the development of knee OA. These results support a causal relationship between asthma and/or allergic rhinitis and knee OA.

Keywords: Asthma; Atopic dermatitis; Atopy; Osteoarthritis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Pairwise genetic correlation and p values between osteoarthritis, atopic disease traits, and COPD. rg = genetic correlation; COPD = chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; OA = osteoarthritis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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