國立臺灣大學公共衛生學院公共衛生學系 學士論文
Department of Public Health College of Public Health
National Taiwan University Bachelor’s Thesis
以雙向孟德爾隨機化探究血小板與高血壓之因果關係 Elucidation of causal direction between Platelet count and
Hypertension: a bidirectional Mendelian Randomization study
邱柏鈞 P0Chun Chiu
指導教授: 盧子彬 博士 Advisor: TzuPin Lu Ph.D.
中華民國 110 年 4 月 April, 2021
國立臺灣大學學士學位論文
口試委員會審定書
以雙向孟德爾隨機化探究血小板與高血壓之因果 關係
Elucidation of causal direction between Platelet count and Hypertension: a bidirectional Mendelian
Randomization study
本論文係邱柏鈞君(B06801012)在國立臺灣大學公共衛 生學系完成之學士學位論文,於民國 110 年 4 月 20 日承下列 考試委員審查通過及口試及格,特此證明
口試委員:
(指導教授)
系 主 任 :
摘要
研究背景:
高血壓是許多重大慢性病的共同危險因子,也是目前世界衛生組織 (world health organization,WHO) 公布全球疾病負擔排名的首位。過去的研究顯示高血壓和血小 板的數量有顯著相關,然而這些研究存在著樣本數偏少且難以進行隨機分派實驗 去釐清彼此的因果關係,因此,本研究透過基因位點來剖析兩者之因果關係。
方法:
本研究資料來自台灣人體生物資料庫,包含 16,000 位年齡位於 30 歲到 70 歲的參 與者。基因檢測使用的晶片為 Affymetrix Axiom TWB 1.0 晶片,共包含有 646,735 個單核苷酸多型性位點數據,我們透過文獻篩選特定基因位點,並使用孟德爾隨 機化分析高血壓與血小板數量的因果關係。
結果:
以 納 入 文 獻 選 取 出 的 5 個 基 因 為 點 作 為 工 具 變 項, 執 行 孟 德 爾 隨 機 化 後 得 到血小板數量對於高血壓具有正向且顯著的相關性 (odds ratio: 1.149, 95% CI:
[0.164,0.849], P=0.185)。
結論:
以台灣人體生物資料庫為研究資料並符合孟德爾隨機化的假設下,血小版數量對 於高血壓有顯著因果關係,而血小版數量與高血壓間不存在雙向因果關係,可做 為臨床上診斷高血壓的相關資訊。
Abstract
Background:
Observational associations between platelet activation and risk factors for hypertension
are well established, but the exact nature of causality between them remains unclear.
Methods:
Clinical and genotype (single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)) data from 15,996 healthy
Taiwanese individuals aged between 30 and 70 years from the Taiwan Biobank project
were included. We performed a bidirectional Mendelian randomization analysis using
inverse variance weighting to estimate the causality of platelet count in hypertension. We
used 65 platelet countrelated SNPs and 6 hypertensionrelated SNPs as instrumental vari
ables. Furthermore, to test for pleotropic effect of the instruments, sensitivity analyses was
performed using the MREgger and weighted median methods.
Results:
This study provided evidence in support of a positive causal effect of platelet count on the
risk of hypertension (odds ratio : 1.149, 95%CI : [1.131, 1.578], P < 0.05), using
the weighted median method. Significant causality of platelet count on hypertension was
observed using the IVW method. However, no pleiotropy was observed for the instru
ments in the analyses.
Conclusions:
In this Taiwanese population with HanChinese ancestry, a significant positive causal re
lationship of platelet count on hypertension was revealed, whereas the causal effect of
hypertension on platelet count was found to be nonsignificant. Platelet count could be
used as a marker for the diagnosis of hypertension
Keywords: Mendelian randomization, bidirectional causal estimation, hypertension, platelet count, Taiwan Biobank
Contents
Page Verification Letter from the Oral Examination Committee i
摘要 ii
Abstract iii
Contents v
List of Figures vii
List of Tables viii
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1
Chapter 2 METHOD 3
2.1 Study population . . . 3
2.2 Quality control . . . 3
2.3 Definition of Hypertension and Platelet count . . . 4
2.4 Association between Hypertension and Platelet count . . . 5
2.5 Mendelian randomization . . . 6
2.5.1 The Framework of data and genetic association . . . 6
2.5.2 IVW method . . . 7
2.5.3 MREgger method . . . 7
2.5.4 Medianbased method . . . 8
Chapter 3 RESULTS 9 3.1 The causal effect of Platelet count on Hypertension . . . 11 3.2 The causal effect of Hypertension on Platelet count . . . 13
Chapter 4 DISCUSSION 15
4.1 Mendelian randomization assumptions . . . 15 4.2 Limitations . . . 16
Chapter 5 CONCLUSION 17
References 18
Appendix A — Literature review 25
List of Figures
2.1 Quality control workflow . . . 4
2.2 Descriptive analysis of hypertension and platelet count . . . 5
2.4 Mendelian randomization . . . 6
2.5 The magnitude of the causality . . . 7
List of Tables
3.1 Characteristic of study participants in Taiwan Biobank dataset . . . 9
3.2 Logistic regression of Platelet count on Hypertension with all possible confounders adjusted . . . 10
3.3 Linear regression of Hypertension on Platelet count with all possible con founders adjusted . . . 11
3.4 Select SNPs correlated with Platelet count as p < 5e06 . . . 12
3.5 Causal estimates of Hypertension on Platelet count . . . 12
3.6 Select SNPs correlated with Platelet count as p < 5e06 . . . 13
3.7 Causal estimates of Hypertension on Platelet count . . . 14
A.1 genomewide association studies with genetic variants related to platelet count . . . 25
A.2 genomewide association studies with genetic variants related to hyper tension . . . 26
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
Hypertension is an important risk factor for major chronic diseases, such as cardio
vascular disease, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease. According to the Global Burden of Disease study, leading detailed risk factors for attributable disabilityadjusted lifeyears (DALYs) were related to blood pressure. Hypertension is a multifactorial disease[1] [2]
[3], and some of the previous studies confirmed that there is a correlation between hyper
tension and platelet counts[4]. Also, patients who take antiplatelet drugs can decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, and patients taking antihypertensive drugs also decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease. Thus, there may be some relationships of platelet count on hypertension. However, if the risk factor has a noncausal association with an outcome, then public health or pharmaceutical interventions targeted at the risk factor will realize no material benefit. Consequently, finding out more potential risk factors of hypertension and establishing the causal relationship is a very emergent public health improvement issue.
Mendelian randomization studies (MR) assess causal inference by using genetic al
leles as unbiased proxies for circulating biomarkers. MR studies are based on the random assortment of genetic alleles during meiosis that can confer advantages similar to a ran
domized controlled trial by investigating the relationship between genetic alleles that are exclusively associated with a biomarker of interest and disease risk[5]. Our study used 16,000 Taiwanese participants selected from the baseline data in the populationbased
Taiwan Biobank database with welldesigned health and lifestyle and genetic data. We elucidate the causation and reverse causation of platelet count and hypertension with an onesample setting Mendelian randomization.
Chapter 2 METHOD
2.1 Study population
Taiwan Biobank intends to conduct largescale cohort studies and casecontrol stud
ies on local diseases by combining genetic and medical information. The community
based cohort study recruits volunteers between 30 and 70 years of age with no history of cancer. The hospitalbased cohort study recruits patients affected by the most common chronic diseases in Taiwan, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic kidney dis
ease, etc. There were 16,000 Taiwanese Han subjects randomly retrieved from the Taiwan Biobank from 2008 to 2015 for conducting the genomewide study, and these people were taken in our study. Using AxiomTaiwan Biobank Array Plate (TWB chip; Affymetrix Inc, CA, USA), selected a total of 653,291 gene variant sites and recorded 646,735 single nucleotide polymorphism sites (SNPs).
2.2 Quality control
As Figure 2.1 shows, we have first done the individual quality control and geno
typing quality control. At individual quality control, no one was removed because sex mismatch problem among the samples in our study. There was no removal of participants
at a call rate > 0.97. Identity–bydescent was also conducted, and all of the samples passed the cryptic relatedness with pihat > 0.1. Nevertheless, we removed four subjects with missing data of platelet count. Thus, 15,996 subjects were included in our study.
At genotyping quality control, there were 646,735 SNPs observed in autosome for the SNPleveled quality control by using PLINK 1.90 beta. Removal of 14,794 variants was carried out at a call rate > 0.97, and 22,437 variants were excluded at the criteria of geno
typing missing rate > 0.05. Furthermore, there were 45,850 variants then removed by HardyWeinberg tests with pvalue < 0.05, and 175,323 variants were pruned by failing to pass linkagedisequilibrium with correlation r < 0.8. There were 15,996 participants and 388,331 variants remaining for the study.
Figure 2.1: Quality control workflow
2.3 Definition of Hypertension and Platelet count
Since our data record from 2008 to 2015, we took the previous definition of Amer
ican Heart Association (https://www.heart.org/ ) as a reference to define hypertension as
a dichotomous outcome. Three criteria of inclusion were adopted by an average sitting systolic blood pressure ≥ 140 mmHg, average sitting diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mmHg, or selfreported to have hypertension in a questionnaire to decide the hypertensive partic
ipants.As Figure 2.2 (a), 21.7% of the analyzed participants were hypertensive. Platelet was selected as the type of platelet count at the baseline measurement in Taiwan Biobank with per unit of 1000/µl. The normal range of platelet count is widely distributed from 150 to 500(1000/µl), and the number is susceptible to external change[6]. Figure 2.2 (b) shows the density plot of platelet count stratified by hypertension with all possible con
founders unadjusted. Before adjusted any confounders, participants with hypertension have a lower mean platelet count than participants without hypertension.
Figure 2.2: Descriptive analysis of hypertension and platelet count (a) Pie chart of hypertension (b) Density of platelet count
2.4 Association between Hypertension and Platelet count
It has been confirmed that there is a correlation between hypertension and platelet counts in the previous study[4]. Here, we check if the association also exists in our dataset.
In reference to previous literature, we took all confounding factors listed below (sex, age, fasting glucose, hematocrit, triglyceride, highdensity lipoprotein, hemoglobin, red blood cell, and white blood cell) in the model as covariates to adjust. We applied the logistic regression model with all known confounders to get the effect size of platelet count on hypertension from the model and did Wald test for the significance test. In the reverse di
rection, we applied multiple linear regression with all the known confounders as covariates and tvalue to get the effect size of hypertension on platelet count.
2.5 Mendelian randomization
In order to have a causal relationship between platelet count and hypertension, we ap
plied Mendelian randomization[7] [8]. The causal relationship obtained by genetic vari
ants involved to be as instrumental variables was based on three main assumptions of Mendelian randomization[9]. First, the variant is predictive of the risk factor. Second, the variant is independent of any confounding factors of the risk factor outcome association.
Third, the variant is conditionally independent of the outcome given the risk factor and the confounding factors (Figure 2.2). The selected genetic variants can only affect the outcome via the risk factor if they meet the above conditions [8] [10]. In our study, we ap
plied the inverse variance method (IVW) to elucidate the causality between platelet count and hypertension and conduct the MREgger method and the Weightedmedian method as a sensitivity analysis.
Figure 2.4: Mendelian randomization
2.5.1 The Framework of data and genetic association
If the association between J genetic variants Gj (j=1,2,…,J) and the outcome is de
noted βY j and the association with the risk factor denoted βXj, then the correlation be
tween the genetic variants and the outcome variable can be expressed as the direct effect
of gene pleiotropy (αj) plus the indirect causal effect of genetic variants on the outcome through risk factors: βY j = αj + θβXj (Figure 2.3).
Figure 2.5: The magnitude of the causality
2.5.2 IVW method
With a single valid genetic variant Gj, the causal effect of the risk factor on the outcome can be expressed by [8]: (ˆθj) = βˆˆY j
βXj , where ˆβY j indicated the coefficient from univariate regression with the outcome. With multiple genetic variants, the estimates from each genetic variant can be averaged using an inversevariance weighted (IVW) estimate [11]. This method assumes that the genetic variants are uncorrelated and the pleiotropic effects are zero αj = 0. The regression model can be written as:
βˆY j = θIV WβˆXj+ ϵij; ϵij ∼ N (0, θ2se( ˆβY j)2)
,where θˆIV W =
∑
jβˆY jβˆXjse( ˆβY j)2
∑
jβˆ2Xjse( ˆβY j)2 [10] [12]
2.5.3 MREgger method
Compare with the IVW method, the MREgger method estimates the pleiotropic ef
fects as part of the analysis. The MREgger method should conform to the InSIDE assump
tion (Instrument Strength Independent of Direct effect), which assume that the pleiotropic
effects αj are independently distributed from the genetic association with the risk factor [13]. The regression model can be written as:
βˆY j = θ0E+ θ1EβˆXj+ ϵEj; ϵEj ∼ N (0, σ2se( ˆβY j)2)
, where θ0E is the intercept and θ1E is the slope [14].
2.5.4 Medianbased method
The medianbased methods have greater robustness to individual genetic variants with strongly outlying causal estimates compared with the inversevariance weighted and MREgger methods. Calculate the median of the ratio instrumental variable estimates evaluated using each genetic variant individually. The simple median method gives a consistent estimate of the causal effect when at least 50% of the genetic variants are valid instrumental variables. For the weighted median method, 50% of the weight comes from valid instrumental variables. Also, it will not be affected by outliers and high leverage genetic variants [15].
Chapter 3 RESULTS
According to the definition of the American Heart Association, there were 3,480 hy
pertensive patients taking account for 21.76% among all participants (Table 3.1). The per
centage was a little lower than the previous reports in Taiwan[16] since Taiwan Biobank only included healthy people, and hypertension was known to be the cause of serval dis
eases. Platelet count with a mean of 237.7 (1000/μL) and standard deviation of 56.9 (1000/
μL) was revealed in the analyzed participants. We did the crude association test between platelet count and hypertension in our dataset. Table 3.2 shows that platelet count was sig
nificantly positively correlated to hypertension when adjusting sex, age, fasting glucose, hematocrit, triglyceride, highdensity lipoprotein, hemoglobin, red blood cell, and white blood cell. With the reverse direction, Table 3.3 shown that hypertension was significantly positively correlated to platelet count when adjusting the same confounders.
Table 3.1: Characteristic of study participants in Taiwan Biobank dataset Characteristics Full sample(N=15996)
Age(years) 48.7± 11.35
Male(sex) 7,965(49.79%)
Hypertension 3,480(21.76%)
Platelet count 237.7± 56.92
Continued on next page
Table 3.1 – continued from previous page
Characteristics Full sample(N=15996)
Fasting glucose 96.5± 21.02
Hematocrit 43.7± 4.55
Triglyceride 117.5± 92.15
Highdensity lipoprotein 53.1± 13.11
Hemoglobin 14.0± 1.58
Red blood cell 4.8± 0.52
White blood cell 6.1± 1.59
†All data are presented as mean± SD or numbers(%)
Table 3.2: Logistic regression of Platelet count on Hypertension with all possible con
founders adjusted
Beta Standard Error Pvalue
Platelet count 1.21e− 03 5.99− 05 p < 0.05
Sex(male=0) −5.13e − 02 8.50− 03 p < 0.001
Age 1.14e− 02 2.83− 04 p < 0.001
Fasting glucose 1.32− 03 1.52− 04 p < 0.001)
Hematocrit −6.13 1.42− 03 p < 0.001
Triglyceride 1.70− 04 3.71− 05 p < 0.001
High−density lipoprotein −1.96 − 03 2.72− 04 p < 0.001
Hemoglobin 2.07− 02 4.26− 03 p < 0.001
Red blood cell 3.02− 02 7.47− 03 p < 0.001
White blood cell 1.86− 02 2.09− 03 p < 0.001
Table 3.3: Linear regression of Hypertension on Platelet count with all possible con
founders adjusted
Beta Standard Error Pvalue
Hypertension 2.11 1.04 p < 0.05
Sex(male=0) 14.02 1.12 p < 0.001
Age −1.02 0.04 p < 0.001
Fasting glucose 0.03 0.02 p = 0.14)
Hematocrit −1.67 1.88 p < 0.001
Triglyceride 0.03 0.01 p < 0.001
Highdensity lipoprotein −0.01 0.04 p = 0.80
Hemoglobin −5.09 0.56 p < 0.001
Red blood cell 5.70 0.99 p < 0.001
White blood cell 10.70 0.26 p < 0.001
3.1 The causal effect of Platelet count on Hypertension
Through the genomewide association studies (GWAS) in recent 10 years with sam
ple size larger than 10,000, as shown in Table A.1, we found 5 single nucleotide poly
morphisms (SNPs), which were rs385893 in JAK2, rs11082304 in CABLES1, rs6425521 in DNM3, rs4895441 in HMIP, and rs7775698 in HBS1L, associated with platelet count (Table 3.4). The variants were also significantly associated (pvalue < 5e6) in the Tai
wan Biobank dataset. We then performed onesample Mendelian randomization for the causal inference for platelet on hypertension count by different methods. In Table 3.5, we observed a significant positive casual effect with the simple median, weighted me
dian and IVW methods. However, there is no significant causal effect with the MRegger method. Also, the MREgger method's intercept was insignificant. The 5 SNPs related to hypertension did not have a pleiotropic effect.
Table 3.4: Select SNPs correlated with Platelet count as p < 5e06
SNP Gene CHR beta Pvalue
rs6425521 DNM3 1 4.42 p < 5e− 06
rs7775698 HBS1L 6 8.27 p < 5e− 06
rs4895441 HMIP 6 7.34 p < 5e− 06
rs385893 JAK2 9 −4.99 p < 5e− 06
rs11082304 CABLES1 18 3.2 p < 5e− 06
†Adjusted all possible confounders, and top 10 principle components from genetic analysis
Table 3.5: Causal estimates of Hypertension on Platelet count
Method Estimate Standard Error 95%CI Pvalue Simplemedian 0.139 0.012 [0.115, 0.162] p < 0.05 Weightedmedian 0.134 0.009 [0.116, 0.152] p < 0.05
IVW 0.121 0.061 [0.001, 0.240] p < 0.05
MREggger 0.048 0.208 [−0.358, 0.455] p = 0.816
(Intercept) 0.444 1.206 [−1.919, 2.807] p = 0.713
3.2 The causal effect of Hypertension on Platelet count
In the reverse direction, through the genomewide association studies (GWAS) in recent 10 years with sample size larger than 10,000, as shown in Table A.2, we found 6 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which were rs1458038 in FGF5, rs3796605 in FGF5, rs455938 in MAST4, rs10866754 in CTC535M15.2, rs648435 in APHGAP42, and rs2018159 in APHGAP42 significantly associated (pvalue < 5e6) with hypertension in Taiwan Biobank dataset (Table 3.6), . We performed onesample Mendelian random
ization for the causal inference for hypertension on platelet count by different methods.
In Table 3.7, no significant causal effect of hypertension on platelet count was observed.
Since there is no significant effect of the MREgger method's intercept, the 6 SNPs re
lated to hypertension did not have a pleiotropic effect. Both IVW and Weighted methods indicate that the weighted causal effect is positive but not significant.
Table 3.6: Select SNPs correlated with Platelet count as p < 5e06
SNP Gene CHR beta Pvalue
rs1458038 FGF5 4 1.197 p < 5e− 06
rs3796605 FGF5 4 0.8562 p < 5e− 06
rs455938 MAST4 5 1.15 p < 5e− 06
rs10866754 CTC535M15.2 1.169 −4.99 p < 5e− 06
rs648435 APHGAP42 11 0.8616 p < 5e− 06
rs2018159 APHGAP42 11 0.8563 p < 5e− 06
†Adjusted all possible confounders, and top 10 principle components from genetic analysis
Table 3.7: Causal estimates of Hypertension on Platelet count
Method Estimate Standard Error 95%CI Pvalue Simplemedian 0.446 0.315 [−1.171, 1.063] p = 0.156 Weightedmedian 0.254 0.316 [−0.366, 0.874] p = 0.423
IVW 0.343 0.258 [−0.164, 0.849] p = 0.185
MREggger −1.294 0.694 [−4.613, 2.025] p = 0.445
(Intercept) 1.703 1.714 [−1.710, 5.166] p = 0.328
Chapter 4 DISCUSSION
4.1 Mendelian randomization assumptions
With Mendelian randomization assumptions, only the first assumption can be fully empirically tested because second and third assumptions depend on all possible confounders of risk factoroutcome association, both measured and unmeasured. While using the IVW method, we need all genetic variants to satisfy the MR assumptions to elucidate a consis
tent estimate of the causal effect[15]. Hence, we conduct the MREgger method and the Weightedmedian method as a sensitivity analysis. The MREgger method estimates the true causal effect that is consistent even if all genetic are invalid due to violation of the third assumption but under a weaker assumption is known as InSIDE (instrument strength independent of direct effect) assumption[13]. However, MREgger regression estimates are likely to be particularly imprecise if all genetic variants have similar magnitudes of association with the risk factor. The weighted median method will provide a consistent estimate if at least 50% of the weight comes from valid genetic variants and assume that no single genetic variant contributes more than 50% of the weighted. Compare with the MREgger method, the weighted median method approach allows the MR assumptions to be violated in a more general way for the invalid genetic variants[15]. Consequently, although we observed an insignificant estimate in the MREgger method, we believe that
there is a causal effect of platelet count on hypertension.
4.2 Limitations
In our study, some potential limitations exist. First, we had only baseline platelet count in the Taiwan Biobank. These limitations would arise less robustness due to the individual variability and should be exchanged by the average of the measurements sev
eral repeated times. Second, the definition of hypertension included selfreported to have hypertension in the questionnaire. Recall bias was inevitable when the questionnaire was used and then misclassified some of the hypertensive patients. Due to the misclassification of the hypertensive patients, we may underestimated the magnitude of the effect. Third, the data we used in the Taiwan Biobank dataset is a crosssectional study. Due to the data restriction, we could only observe one direction of the causal effect simultaneously, although reverse causation exists. Last, as for the method, we need to adjust all possible confounders to comply with the Mendelian randomization assumptions. However, there were still existing some unknown confounding factors. The causality was not guaranteed if there were unknown confounding factors in the relationship. The result could be im
pacted by the limitations, which should be cautious of when making further applications.
Chapter 5 CONCLUSION
In our study, we revealed the significant positive causal relationship of platelet count on hypertension by Mendelian randomization. However, there is no significant causal effect in the reverse direction. Platelet count can be taken as one of the risk factors of hypertension, provide the evaluation reference for potential hypertension in clinical diag
nosis, and can set the stricter threshold of hypertension to keep track of for those who have higher platelet count to prevent hypertension. Furthermore, combined with the relation
ships of other platelet indices on hypertension under larger and multiple data sources in future studies, we can have more evidence on platelet and hypertension to develop more therapeutic treatments on hypertension.
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Appendix A — Literature review
Table A.1: genomewide association studies with genetic variants related to platelet count
paper ID overlapped gene publication date sample size sample ethics GWAS in
Japan[17]
JAK2
CABLES1 20180205 n=108,208 East Asian The Allelic
Landscape of
Human Blood Cell[18]
CABLES1
DNM3 20161117 n=166,066 European
GWAS of platelet in
Hispanic or Latin American[19]
JAK2
HMIP 20160121 n=12,491
Hispanic or Latin American
Gwas in Korean[20] NA 20141231 n=8,842 East Asian
GWAS of
platelet related[21] CABLES1 20130912 n=13,582 European New gene
function in
platelet formation[22]
CABLES1 20111130 n=48,666 European
GWAS in Japanese
biochemical traits [23]
CABLES1
HBS1L 20120207 n=14,806 East Asian
Table A.2: genomewide association studies with genetic variants related to hypertension
paper ID overlapped gene publication date sample size sample ethics GWAS study of
blood pressure
and hypertension [24]
ATP2B1 CASZ1 CYP17A1
SH2B3
20090510 n=29,136 European
GWAS study in Chinese identifies nuvel loci for blood pressure
and hypertenison [25]
ATP2B1 CASZ1
FGF5 CYP17A1
20140923 n=11,816 Chinese population
GWAS study identifies L3MBTL4 as a Novel
Susceptibility Gene for
Hypertension [26]
ATP2B1 CASZ1
FGF5 CYPA1
20160802 n=16,870 Chunese population
Transancestry metaanalysis identify rare and common variants associated with blood pressure and
hypertension [27]
ATP2B1 CASZ1
FGF5
20161001 n=165,276 n = 192,763
Europeans South Asians