Evaluating the Causal Effects of TIMP-3 on Ischaemic Stroke and Intracerebral Haemorrhage: A Mendelian Randomization Study

Linxiao Xiao; Xuelun Zou; Yan Liang; Yuxiang Wang; Lang Zeng; Jianhuang Wu

doi:10.3389/fgene.2022.838809

Evaluating the Causal Effects of TIMP-3 on Ischaemic Stroke and Intracerebral Haemorrhage: A Mendelian Randomization Study

Front Genet. 2022 Apr 4:13:838809. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2022.838809. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Linxiao Xiao¹, Xuelun Zou², Yan Liang¹, Yuxiang Wang¹, Lang Zeng¹, Jianhuang Wu^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Spine Surgery and Orthopaedics, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
² Department of Neurology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
³ National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.

Abstract

Aim: Since tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinase 3 (TIMP-3) was reported to be a potential risk factor of atherosclerosis, aneurysm, hypertension, and post-ischaemic neuronal injury, it may also be a candidate risk factor of stress. Therefore, this study was designed to explore the causal role of TIMP-3 in the risk of ischaemic stroke (IS) and intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH), which are the two main causes of stress via this Mendelian Randomisation (MR) study. Methods: The summarised data of TIMP-3 level in circulation was acquired from the Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg public database and the outcome of IS and ICH was obtained from genome-wide association studies conducted by MEGASTROKE and the International Stroke Genetics Consortium, respectively. Five statistical methods including inverse-variance weighting, weighted-median analysis, MR-Egger regression, MR Pleiotropy RESidual Sum and Outlier test, and MR-Robust Adjusted Profile Score were applied to evaluate the causal role of TIMP-3 in the occurrence of IS and ICH. Inverse-variance weighting was applied for assessing causality. Furthermore, heterogeneity and pleiotropic tests were utilised to confirm the reliability of this study. Results: We found that TIMP-3 could be a positively causal relationship with the incidence of IS (OR = 1.026, 95% CI: 1.007-1.046, p = 0.0067), especially for the occurrence of small vessel stroke (SVS; OR = 1.045, 95% CI: 1.016-1.076, p = 0.0024). However, the causal effects of TIMP-3 on another IS subtype cardioembolic stroke (CES; OR = 1.049, 95% CI: 1.006-1.094, p = 0.024), large artery stroke (LAS; OR = 1.0027, 95% CI: 0.9755-1.0306, p = 0.849) and ICH (OR = 0.9900, 95% CI: 0.9403-1.0423, p = 0.701), as well as ICH subtypes were not observed after Bonferroni corrections (p = 0.00714). Conclusion: Our results revealed that high levels of circulating TIMP-3 causally increased the risk of developing IS and SVS, but not CES, LAS, ICH, and all ICH subtypes. Further investigation is required to elucidate the underlying mechanism.

Keywords: TIMP-3; genome-wide association study; intracerebral haemorrhage; ischaemic stroke; mendelian randomisation.