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Causal effects of gut microbiota on the risk of erectile dysfunction: a Mendelian randomization study

International Journal of Impotence Research (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Erectile dysfunction ranks among the prevalent sexual disorders in men. Several studies have indicated a potential link between gut microbiota and erectile dysfunction. To validate this potential association, we were to screen statistical data from genome-wide association studies of gut microbiota and erectile dysfunction. p values of less than 1 × 10−5 were set as the threshold for screening instrumental variables that were strongly associated with gut microbiota. At the same time, in order to obtain more convincing findings, we further excluded instrumental variables with possible chain imbalance, instrumental variables with the presence of palindromes, instrumental variables with F-statistics less than 10, and instrumental variables associated with risk factors for erectile dysfunction. Five methods including inverse-variance weighted method, weighted median method, weighted mode, Mendelian randomization egger method and Mendelian randomization pleiotropy residual sum and outlier test were then used to analyse the 2591 instrumental variables obtained from the screening. We identified correlations between six gut microbiota and the risk of erectile dysfunction. The genus Ruminococcaceae UCG-013 exhibited an inverse association with the risk of developing erectile dysfunction (0.79 (0.65–0.97), P = 0.0214). Conversely, the genus Tyzzerella3 (1.13 (1.02–1.26), P = 0.0225), genus Erysipelotrichaceae UCG-003 (1.18 (1.01–1.38), P = 0.0412), genus LachnospiraceaeNC2004group (1.19 (1.03–1.37), P = 0.0191), genus Oscillibacter (1.23 (1.08–1.41), P = 0.0022), and family Lachnospiraceae (1.26 (1.05–1.52), P = 0.0123) demonstrated positive associations with an increased risk of erectile dysfunction. These sensitivity analyses of the gut microbiota were consistent. This study demonstrated a possible causal relationship between gut microbiota and erectile dysfunction risk through Mendelian randomization analysis, providing new potential possibilities for the prevention and treatment of erectile dysfunction.

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Fig. 1
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Fig. 4: Radial plots from six nominally significant gut microbiota taxa associated with erectile dysfunction.

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The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/ Supplementary Material. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding authors.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank MiBioGen and IEU for providing GWAS summary datasets.

Funding

This work was supported the Young/Middle aged Talent Cultivation Project that was funded by the Fujian Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission and Xiamen Health and Family Planning Commission (No. 2021GGB028).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, Zhongshan Hospital Xiamen University, School of Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

    Ran Xu, Shuo Liu, Lu-Yi Li, Bo-Qin Fang, Guang-Cheng Luo & Xin-Jun Wang

  2. Department of Urology, Zhongshan Hospital Xiamen University, The School of Clinical Medicine, Fujian Medical University, Xiamen, China

    Ying Zhang, Guang-Cheng Luo & Xin-Jun Wang

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  1. Ran Xu
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Contributions

RX and XW designed the study, contributed to the data analysis, and wrote the manuscript. SL, LL and YZ contributed to the data analysis and data interpretation. QF and GL contributed to manuscript writing and revision of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xin-Jun Wang.

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Xu, R., Liu, S., Li, LY. et al. Causal effects of gut microbiota on the risk of erectile dysfunction: a Mendelian randomization study. Int J Impot Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-024-00824-7

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