The Causal Effects of Primary Biliary Cholangitis on Thyroid Dysfunction: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study

Background: Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is an autoimmune disease and is often accompanied by thyroid dysfunction. Understanding the potential causal relationship between PBC and thyroid dysfunction is helpful to explore the pathogenesis of PBC and to develop strategies for the prevention and treatment of PBC and its complications.

Methods: We used a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) method to estimate the potential causal effect of PBC on the risk of autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4), hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, and thyroid cancer (TC) in the European population. We collected seven datasets of PBC and related traits to perform a series MR analysis and performed extensive sensitivity analyses to ensure the reliability of our results.

Results: Using a sensitivity analysis, we found that PBC was a risk factor for AITD, TSH, hypothyroidism, and TC with odds ratio (OR) of 1.002 (95% CI: 1.000–1.005, p = 0.042), 1.016 (95% CI: 1.006–1.027, p = 0.002), 1.068 (95% CI: 1.022–1.115, p = 0.003), and 1.106 (95% CI: 1.019–1.120, p = 0.042), respectively. Interestingly, using reverse-direction MR analysis, we also found that AITD had a significant potential causal association with PBC with an OR of 0.021 (p = 5.10E−4) and that the other two had no significant causal relation on PBC.

Conclusion: PBC causes thyroid dysfunction, specifically as AITD, mild hypothyroidism, and TC. The potential causal relationship between PBC and thyroid dysfunction provides a new direction for the etiology of PBC.