Insomnia and sleep duration for kidney function: Mendelian randomization study

Ren Fail. 2024 Dec;46(2):2387430. doi: 10.1080/0886022X.2024.2387430. Epub 2024 Aug 12.

Abstract

Objectives: Extensive researches highlight the detrimental impact of sleep disorders such as insomnia and insufficient sleep duration on kidney function. However, establishing a clear causal relationship between insomnia, sleep duration, and kidney function remains challenging. This study aims to estimate this relationship using Mendelian randomization (MR).

Methods: Independent genetic variants strongly associated with insomnia (N = 462,341) and sleep duration (N = 460,099) were selected as instrumental variables from corresponding genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Kidney function parameters, including serum creatinine, estimated glomerular filtration rate by cystatin C (eGFRcys), acute renal failure (ARF), chronic renal failure (CRF), kidney injury molecule-1, neutrophil gelatinase associated lipocalin, microalbuminuria, cystatin C, and β2 microglobulin, were derived from GWAS databases. A two-sample MR study was conducted to assess the causal relationship between sleep disorders and kidney function, and multivariable MR was used to identify potential mediators. The inverse-variance weighted was used as the primary estimate.

Results: MR analysis found robust evidence indicating that insomnia and short sleep duration were associated with an increased risk of elevated serum creatinine, regardless of adjusting for obesity. Causal links between sleep duration and eGFRcys or cystatin C were also identified. While genetically predicted insomnia and sleep duration were found to potentially impact ARF, CRF, microalbuminuria, and β2 microglobulin, the p-values in multivariable MR analysis became nonsignificant. No pleiotropy was detected.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates a causal impact of insomnia on the risk of elevated serum creatinine and a positive effect of sleep duration on serum creatinine, eGFRcys, and cystatin C. Our findings also suggest their potential indirect effects on ARF, CRF, microalbuminuria, and β2 microglobulin mediated by obesity.

Keywords: Kidney function; Mendelian randomization; insomnia; sleep duration.

MeSH terms

  • Acute Kidney Injury / etiology
  • Acute Kidney Injury / genetics
  • Creatinine* / blood
  • Cystatin C / blood
  • Cystatin C / genetics
  • Genome-Wide Association Study*
  • Glomerular Filtration Rate*
  • Humans
  • Kidney / physiopathology
  • Mendelian Randomization Analysis*
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
  • Sleep Duration
  • Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders* / genetics
  • Sleep* / genetics

Substances

  • Creatinine
  • Cystatin C

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82170771, No. 82370756), and the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangzhou (No. 202201020425).