Evidence mapPaperPMID 40771902Full record

ArticleJournal of inflammation research2025

M-CSF Protects Against Ulcerative Colitis via Aconitate: Mendelian Randomization and Experimental Evidence.

Yuan Zhang, Longbin Huang, Ningning Yue, Zhiliang Mai, Chen Kong, Chengmei Tian, Dao-Ru Wei, Jun Yao, Lisheng Wang, Defeng Li

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Article in Journal of inflammation research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Yuan Zhang *Department of Gastroenterology, Shenzhen People's Hospital (the Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University; The First Affiliated Hospital, Southern University of Science and Technology), Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.ORCID 0009-0007-8616-6050
Longbin Huang *Department of Gastroenterology, Shenzhen People's Hospital (The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University), Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
Ningning Yue *Department of Gastroenterology, Shenzhen People's Hospital (The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University), Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
Zhiliang Mai *Department of Gastroenterology, Shenzhen People's Hospital (The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University), Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
Chen KongDepartment of Gastroenterology, Shenzhen People's Hospital (The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University), Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
Chengmei TianDepartment of Emergency, Shenzhen People's Hospital (The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University; The First Affiliated Hospital, Southern University of Science and Technology), Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
Dao-Ru WeiDepartment of Rehabilitation, Shenzhen People's Hospital (The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University; the First Affiliated Hospital, Southern University of Science and Technology), Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
Jun YaoDepartment of Gastroenterology, Shenzhen People's Hospital (the Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University; The First Affiliated Hospital, Southern University of Science and Technology), Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.ORCID 0000-0001-7679-4669
Lisheng WangDepartment of Gastroenterology, Shenzhen People's Hospital (the Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University; The First Affiliated Hospital, Southern University of Science and Technology), Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.ORCID 0000-0001-5965-308X
Defeng LiDepartment of Gastroenterology, Shenzhen People's Hospital (the Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University; The First Affiliated Hospital, Southern University of Science and Technology), Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.ORCID 0000-0003-3118-6840

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: Although cytokines have been implicated in the development of ulcerative colitis (UC), the potential mediating role of metabolite levels in this association remains unclear. Methods: Utilizing data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) encompassing 91 circulating cytokines, 1400 blood metabolites, and 178,689 UC cases, we performed a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to investigate the effect of metabolites mediated cytokines on the development of UC. A two-step MR analysis was conducted to quantitatively evaluate the mediation effect. Additionally, dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis mice were used to further confirm our results. Results: Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis indicated that macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) had a causal and positive relationship with aconitate (OR: 1.10, 95% CI: 1.00-1.20, p = 0.043, IVW beta 1 = 0.095). Moreover, MR analysis revealed that high level of aconitate were associated with reduced risk of UC (OR: 0.44, 95% CI: 0.24-0.80, p = 0.008, IVW beta 2 = -0.818). In addition, MR analysis showed M-CSF had an inverse correlation with the disease onset of UC (OR: 0.31, 95% CI: 0.15-0.80, p = 0.002, IVW beta all = -1.16). Furthermore, the mediation effect of aconitate mediated M-CSF on the risk of UC was -0.0777 (95% CI: -0.154 to -0.0018, p = 0.045), accounting for 6.69% of the total effect, and indicating a modest contribution to the protective effect of M-CSF against UC. Subsequently, as an in vivo validation model, DSS-induced colitis was employed to demonstrate that M-CSF treatment significantly ameliorated weight loss, disease activity index (DAI) scores, colon shortening, and histological damage. Additionally, M-CSF treatment also significantly reduced M1 macrophage infiltration, elevated levels of aconitate as well as itaconate, and decreased the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in colitis. These results demonstrated that aconitate inhibited the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines through its enzymatic conversion into the immunometabolite itaconate by aconitate decarboxylase 1 (Acod1), and downregulated the levels of M1 macrophages, thereby ameliorating colitis. Conclusion: These findings suggest that M-CSF is an important anti-inflammatory cytokine in UC, which may be a promising therapeutic target in the treatment of UC.

Indexed as

aconitatemacrophage colony-stimulating factorMendelian randomizationulcerative colitis

Identifiers

PMID40771902
PMCPMC12325114

What Socratic holds

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.