A cohort study by Danish scientists has found that patients with an increased genetic risk of developing hidradenitis have a genetic predisposition to coronary heart disease and diabetes. As reported in JAMA Dermatology, this link may be mediated by the expression of 58 plasma proteins involved in inflammation and metabolism.
Hidradenitis is a purulent inflammation of the apocrine sweat glands that typically occurs in the armpits and groin. Early studies reported that patients with hidradenitis have an increased risk of developing concomitant pathologies, 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. In addition, patients with hidradenitis have an increased systemic inflammatory burden in the form of elevated circulating levels of C-reactive protein and proinflammatory cytokines, which are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
To further our understanding of the links between hidradenitis suppurativa and cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, a team 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 showed a significant positive correlation between genetic variants associated with the development of hidradenitis 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 the levels of plasma triglycerides (p = 1.81 × 10-4) and plasma C-reactive protein (p = 1.49 × 10-4). At the same time, genetic predisposition to hidradenitis was negatively correlated with genetic variants of plasma high-density lipoprotein levels (p = 2.78 × 10-4).
In addition, the scientists calculated that people with a low genetic risk of developing hidradenitis also had lower risks of developing coronary heart disease and diabetes. Adjusting for diagnosis before and after inclusion in the study did not significantly affect the patterns found.
The team then looked at 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 of genes associated with the development of hidradenitis. These proteins were mainly involved in inflammation and metabolic pathways.
According to the scientists, these results specify the knowledge about the genetic link between hidradenitis and metabolic disorders. Further research should be aimed at identifying specific pathogenetic pathways, the change of which mediates this link.
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.