PMID: 40372048 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40372048/

Abstract

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the potential causal association between chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection and the risk of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia using a Mendelian randomisation (MR) design.

METHODS: We conducted a two-sample MR analysis using genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics from three large-scale datasets. For CHB infection, we used data from 351,885 individuals UK Biobank. For pre‑eclampsia/eclampsia, we analysed two FinnGen datasets with sample sizes of 118,291 and 126,760 individuals, respectively. Genetic variants strongly associated with CHB infection ( < 5 × 10) were selected as instrumental variables. The inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method was employed as the primary analysis. Sensitivity analyses included MR-Egger regression, weighted median, weighted mode and MR-PRESSO. Cochran's test and MR-Egger intercept tests were performed to assess heterogeneity and horizontal pleiotropy, respectively.

RESULTS: MR analysis revealed significant positive genetic associations between CHB infection and increased risk of pre-eclampsia (OR = 1.154, 95%CI = 1.014-1.313,  = .029) and eclampsia (OR = 1.561, 95%CI = 1.030-2.366,  = .035). Findings were robust across sensitivity analyses for both outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides genetic evidence that CHB infection increases the risk of both pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. These findings suggest that considering CHB status as a risk factor and implementing targeted HBV screening programmes may be beneficial for pregnant women.