Aims/hypothesis

Mitochondrial dysfunction, which can be approximated by blood mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNA-CN), has been implicated in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Thus far, however, insights from prospective cohort studies and Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses on this relationship are limited. We assessed the association between blood mtDNA-CN and incident type 2 diabetes using multivariable-adjusted regression analyses, and the associations between blood mtDNA-CN and type 2 diabetes and BMI using bi-directional MR.

Methods

Multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the association between blood mtDNA-CN and incident type 2 diabetes in 285,967 unrelated European individuals from UK Biobank free of type 2 diabetes at baseline. Additionally, a cross-sectional analysis was performed to investigate the association between blood mtDNA-CN and BMI. We also assessed the potentially causal relationship between blood mtDNA-CN and type 2 diabetes (N=898,130 from DIAGRAM, N=215,654 from FinnGen) and BMI (N=681,275 from GIANT) using bi-directional two-sample MR.

Results

During a median follow-up of 11.87 years, 15,111 participants developed type 2 diabetes. Participants with a higher level of blood mtDNA-CN are at lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes (HR 0.90 [95% CI 0.89, 0.92]). After additional adjustment for BMI and other confounders, these results attenuated moderately and remained present. The multivariable-adjusted cross-sectional analyses showed that higher blood mtDNA-CN was associated with lower BMI (-0.12 [95% CI -0.14, -0.10]) kg/m2. In the bi-directional MR analyses, we found no evidence for causal associations between blood mtDNA-CN and type 2 diabetes, and blood mtDNA-CN and BMI in either direction.

Conclusions/interpretation

The results from the present study indicate that the observed association between low blood mtDNA-CN and higher risk of type 2 diabetes is likely not causal.

© 2022. The Author(s).

Overview publication

TitleAssessment of the bi-directional relationship between blood mitochondrial DNA copy number and type 2 diabetes mellitus: a multivariable-adjusted regression and Mendelian randomisation study.
DateOctober 1st, 2022
Issue nameDiabetologia
Issue numberv65.10:1676-1686
DOI10.1007/s00125-022-05759-6
PubMed35867128
AuthorsWang W, Luo J, Willems van Dijk K, Hägg S, Grassmann F, T Hart LM, van Heemst D & Noordam R
KeywordsMendelian randomisation, Mitochondrial DNA copy number, Prospective analyses, Type 2 diabetes mellitus
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