Does Cannabis Intake Protect Against Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease? A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aim

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease. Previous observational studies suggested that cannabis use may be associated with a lower risk for NAFLD but the causal relationship remains unclear. We aim in this study to examine the causal effect of cannabis consumption on the risk of NAFLD using a Mendelian randomization analysis. Clarifying this causal effect is important for cannabis-based drug discovery for NAFLD.

Methods

We used data from the largest-to-date GWAS meta-analysis on lifetime use of cannabis (yes or no) consisting of three cohorts [International Cannabis Consortium (ICC), 23andMe, and the UK Biobank] of European ancestry (total N = 184,765). We also used other GWAS data on cannabis use dependenc

SUBMITTER: Wang X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7457051 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature