Wang DK, Li YH, Guo XM. Depression and sarcopenia-related traits: A Mendelian randomization study. World J Psychiatry 2023; 13(11): 929-936 [PMID: 38073896 DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v13.i11.929]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Xiao-Ming Guo, MD, Doctor, Department of Neurosurgery, Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, School of Medicine, No. 88 Jiefang Road, Hangzhou 310012, Zhejiang Province, China. 21718274@zju.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Psychiatry
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Psychiatry. Nov 19, 2023; 13(11): 929-936 Published online Nov 19, 2023. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v13.i11.929
Depression and sarcopenia-related traits: A Mendelian randomization study
Ding-Kun Wang, Yi-Hao Li, Xiao-Ming Guo
Ding-Kun Wang, Yi-Hao Li, Department of Neurosurgery, Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310016, Zhejiang Province, China
Xiao-Ming Guo, Department of Neurosurgery, Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310012, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Wang DK and Li YH drafted the initial manuscript, analyzed the data, and interpreted the results; Guo XM designed the study, analyzed the data, and critically revised the manuscript; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported byZhejiang Province Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Project, No. 2023ZR075.
Institutional review board statement: This study only adopted publicly available data. Ethical review and approval were not required for this study in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose. They confirm that they have read the Journal’s position on issues involved in ethical publication and affirm that this report is consistent with those guidelines.
Data sharing statement: This study only used publicly available data. Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at 21718274@zju.edu.cn.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xiao-Ming Guo, MD, Doctor, Department of Neurosurgery, Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, School of Medicine, No. 88 Jiefang Road, Hangzhou 310012, Zhejiang Province, China. 21718274@zju.edu.cn
Received: August 19, 2023 Peer-review started: August 19, 2023 First decision: September 19, 2023 Revised: October 6, 2023 Accepted: October 23, 2023 Article in press: October 23, 2023 Published online: November 19, 2023 Processing time: 89 Days and 15.2 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Sarcopenia is a complex geriatric disorder marked by a gradual and progressive reduction of skeletal muscle mass, decrease in skeletal muscle strength, and deterioration in physical performance. Depression is also common among the elderly. Observational studies have suggested that depression is associated with sarcopenia.
Research motivation
The causal relationship between depression and sarcopenia remains unclear.
Research objectives
To investigate the causal relationship between depression and sarcopenia.
Research methods
We performed a Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to identify the bidirectional relationship between depression and sarcopenia-related traits. Summary-level data and independent variants were used as instrumental variables that came from large genome-wide association studies of depression (414055 cases and892299 controls), of appendicular lean mass (ALM, 450243 participants), and of hand grip strength (exposures: 360000 participants; outcomes: 334925 participants).
Research results
We identified a negative association of depression with lower ALM. In the reverse MR analysis, we also observed an inverse association of hand grip strength with depression. Similar results were obtained in the sensitivity analyses.
Research conclusions
Depression was causally related to decreased muscle mass. Declined muscle strength might lead to a higher risk of depression.
Research perspectives
Our findings highlighted a potential bidirectional relationship between depression and sarcopenia with implications for both mental and physical health.
