Genetic association of hypertension and several other metabolic disorders with Bell's palsy

Huawei Liu; Qingyan Sun; Wenting Bi; Xiaodan Mu; Yongfeng Li; Min Hu

doi:10.3389/fgene.2023.1077438

Genetic association of hypertension and several other metabolic disorders with Bell's palsy

Front Genet. 2023 Jul 18:14:1077438. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2023.1077438. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Huawei Liu¹, Qingyan Sun¹, Wenting Bi², Xiaodan Mu³, Yongfeng Li⁴, Min Hu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Stomatology, The First Medical Center, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
² Department of Stomatology, Beijing Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, Beijing, China.
³ Department of Stomatology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
⁴ Department of Stomatology, Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, School of Clinical Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Background: Effects of hypertension, type 2 diabetes and obesity on Bell's palsy risk remains unclear. The aim of the study was to explore whether hypertension and these metabolic disorders promoted Bell's palsy at the genetic level. Methods: Genetic variants from genome-wide association studies for hypertension, type 2 diabetes, body mass index and several lipid metabolites were adopted as instrumental variables. Two-sample Mendelian randomization including IVW and MR-Egger was used to measure the genetic relationship between the exposures and Bell's palsy. Sensitivity analyses (i.e., Cochran's Q test, MR-Egger intercept test, "leave-one-SNP-out" analysis and funnel plot) were carried out to assess heterogeneity and horizontal pleiotropy. All statistical analyses were performed using R software. Results: Hypertension was significantly associated with the increased risk of Bell's palsy (IVW: OR = 2.291, 95%CI = 1.025-5.122, p = 0.043; MR-Egger: OR = 16.445, 95%CI = 1.377-196.414, p = 0.029). Increased level of LDL cholesterol might upexpectedly decrease the risk of the disease (IVW: OR = 0.805, 95%CI = 0.649-0.998, p = 0.048; MR-Egger: OR = 0.784, 95%CI = 0.573-1.074, p = 0.132). In addition, type 2 diabetes, body mass index and other lipid metabolites were not related to the risk of Bell's palsy. No heterogeneity and horizontal pleiotropy had been found. Conclusion: Hypertension might be a risk factor for Bell's palsy at the genetic level, and LDL cholesterol might reduce the risk of the disease. These findings (especially for LDL cholesterol) need to be validated by further studies.

Keywords: Bell palsy; body mass index; diabetes mellitus; hypertension; obesity.

Grants and funding

This works was supported by Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (2017YFA0104703) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (81901023).