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About the Authors:
Despoina Manousaki
Affiliation: Centre for Clinical Epidemiology, Department of Epidemiology, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, Canada
Lavinia Paternoster
Affiliation: MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, School of Social & Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2514-0889
Marie Standl
Affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology I, Helmholtz Zentrum München-German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5345-2049
Miriam F. Moffatt
Affiliation: National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7623-5840
Martin Farrall
Affiliations Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4564-2165
Emmanuelle Bouzigon
Affiliation: Genetic Variation and Human Diseases Unit, UMR-946, INSERM, Université Paris Diderot, Université Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5756-4286
David P. Strachan
Affiliation: Population Health Research Institute, St George's University of London, London, United Kingdom
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7854-1366
Florence Demenais
Affiliation: Genetic Variation and Human Diseases Unit, UMR-946, INSERM, Université Paris Diderot, Université Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
Mark Lathrop
Affiliation: McGill University and Genome Québec Innovation Centre, Montréal, Canada
William O. C. M. Cookson
Affiliations National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom, Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
J. Brent Richards
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliations Centre for Clinical Epidemiology, Department of Epidemiology, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, Canada, Departments of Medicine and Human Genetics, McGill University, Montréal, Canada, Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3746-9086Abstract
Background
Low circulating vitamin D levels have been associated with risk of asthma, atopic dermatitis, and elevated total immunoglobulin E (IgE). These epidemiological associations, if true, would have public health importance, since vitamin D insufficiency is common and correctable.
Methods and findings
We aimed to test whether genetically lowered vitamin D levels were associated with risk of asthma, atopic dermatitis, or elevated serum IgE levels, using Mendelian randomization (MR) methodology to control bias owing to confounding and reverse causation. The study employed data from the UK Biobank resource and from the SUNLIGHT, GABRIEL and EAGLE eczema consortia. Using four single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) strongly associated with 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels in...