The causal relationship between human blood metabolites and the risk of visceral obesity: a mendelian randomization analysis

Abstract Background We aimed to explore the causal relationship between blood metabolites and the risk of visceral obesity, as measured by visceral adipose tissue (VAT). Methods Summary statistics for 486 blood metabolites and total, as well as sex-stratified, MRI-derived VAT measurements, adjusted for body mass index (BMI) and height, were collected from previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS). A two-sample Mendelian Randomization (MR) design was used. Comprehensive evaluation was further conducted, including sensitivity analysis, linkage disequilibrium score (LDSC) regression, Steiger test, and metabolic pathway analysis. Results After multiple testing correction, arachidonate (20:4n6) has been implicated in VAT accumulation (β = 0.35, 95%CI:0.18–0.52, P