A cohort study by Danish scientists has shown that patients with an increased genetic risk of developing hidradenitis suppurativa have a genetic predisposition to coronary heart disease and diabetes. As reported in JAMA Dermatology, this association may be mediated by the expression of 58 plasma proteins involved in inflammation and metabolism.
Hidradenitis suppurativa is a purulent inflammation of the apocrine sweat glands, typically occurring in the armpits and groin. Early studies reported that patients with hidradenitis suppurativa have an increased risk of developing comorbidities such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
It has been suggested that this risk may be due to common risk factors, such as smoking, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. Furthermore, patients with hidradenitis suppurativa have an increased systemic inflammatory burden, represented by elevated levels of circulating C-reactive protein and proinflammatory cytokines, which are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
To further our understanding of the relationship between hidradenitis suppurativa and cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, a team of scientists led by Valdemar Wendelboe Nielsen from Bispebjerg Hospital examined the genetic correlation of hidradenitis suppurativa with coronary heart disease and diabetes mellitus using individual genotype data from the UK Biobank.
The cohort included 391,481 individuals of European descent (mean age 58 years). Polygenic risk assessment revealed a significant positive correlation between genetic variants associated with the development of hidradenitis suppurativa and genetic variants associated with the development of coronary heart disease (p = 5.59 × 10-5), diabetes mellitus (p = 4.19 × 10-6), as well as with plasma triglyceride levels (p = 1.81 × 10-4) and plasma C-reactive protein (p = 1.49 × 10-4). At the same time, genetic predisposition to hidradenitis suppurativa was negatively correlated with genetic variants of plasma high-density lipoprotein levels (p = 2.78 × 10-4).
Furthermore, the scientists calculated that people with a low genetic risk of developing hidradenitis suppurativa also had lower risks of coronary heart disease and diabetes. Adjusting for diagnosis before and after inclusion in the study did not significantly alter the patterns found.
The research team then studied changes in the expression of 2,911 plasma proteins. It turned out that the expression of 58 plasma proteins was significantly dependent on genetic variants in genes associated with the development of hidradenitis suppurativa. These proteins were primarily involved in inflammatory and metabolic pathways.
According to the scientists, these results further expand our understanding of the genetic link between hidradenitis suppurativa and metabolic disorders. Further research should be aimed at identifying the specific pathogenic pathways whose alterations mediate this connection.
We previously reported that children with type 1 diabetes are almost twice as likely to have a father with diabetes as they are to have a mother with diabetes.
