PM2.5 associates with blood pressure: a Mendelian randomization analysis

ABSTRACT

The relationship between fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and blood pressure (BP) is a controversial issue. We conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis and identified 58 genome-wide significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with PM2.5 as instrument variables. Inverse-variance weighted (IVW) was used as the primary analysis approach. MR-Egger, weighted median, simple model, and weighted model methods were selected for quality control. We found a significant negative causal association of higher genetically predicted PM2.5 levels with lower systolic BP (SBP), while no causal relationship was identified between PM2.5 and diastolic BP (DBP). For each 1 standard deviation increase in genetically predicted PM2.5 levels, the beta value (95% CI) of SBP was -0.14 (-0.25, -0.03) for IVW (p=0.02), and -0.13 (-0.22, -0.04) for weighted median (p=0.005). Increased PM2.5 concentrations can lead to decreased SBP levels. Our findings provided novel insights into the controversial topic on the causal relationship between PM2.5 and BP.

KEYWORDS:

• Fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
• blood pressure (BP)
• Mendelian randomization
• genome-wide association study (GWAS)

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the contribution all subjects who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09603123.2024.2339536

Author contribution statement

Minghui Bao and Jianping Li designed this study; Minghui Bao contributed to the R analyses; Haotong Li collected clinical data; Minghui Bao drafted the manuscript; Yan Zhang and Jianping Li reviewed and edited the manuscript; All authors read and approved this manuscript.

Consent for publication

All authors have read and approved the submission of the manuscript; the manuscript has not been published and is not being considered for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part, in any language, except as an abstract.

Data statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the IEU database (https://gwas.mrcieu.ac.uk).

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All studies included in cited genome-wide association studies had been approved by a relevant review board, and participants had provided written informed consent. The present MR analyses were approved by the Institutional Review Board of Peking University First Hospital.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [No.82000432] and the Peking University First Hospital Seed Foundation [No. 2020SF01].