477 results match your criteria: "MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol.[Affiliation]"

Background: Lower socioeconomic position (SEP) associates with adverse pregnancy and perinatal outcomes and with less favourable metabolic profile in nonpregnant adults. Socioeconomic differences in pregnancy metabolic profile are unknown. We investigated association between a composite measure of SEP and pregnancy metabolic profile in White European (WE) and South Asian (SA) women.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) analyzed data from over 41,000 infertility cases and 687,000 controls, identifying 21 genetic risk loci for infertility, with 12 previously unreported.
  • The study found significant genetic correlations between female infertility and conditions like endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome, suggesting interactions between genetic risk factors.
  • Exome sequencing revealed that women with rare testosterone-lowering variants are at higher risk for infertility, yet no general correlation between reproductive hormones and infertility was found, highlighting a complex genetic landscape.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Genetic effects on changes in human traits over time are understudied and may have important pathophysiological impact. We propose a framework that enables data quality control, implements mixed models to evaluate trajectories of change in traits, and estimates phenotypes to identify age-varying genetic effects in genome-wide association studies (GWASs). Using childhood body mass index (BMI) as an example, we included 71,336 participants from six cohorts and estimated the slope and area under the BMI curve within four time periods (infancy, early childhood, late childhood and adolescence) for each participant, in addition to the age and BMI at the adiposity peak and the adiposity rebound.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Accurate placenta pathology assessment is essential for managing maternal and newborn health, but the placenta's heterogeneity and temporal variability pose challenges for histology analysis. To address this issue, we developed the 'Histology Analysis Pipeline.PY' (HAPPY), a deep learning hierarchical method for quantifying the variability of cells and micro-anatomical tissue structures across placenta histology whole slide images.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated how introducing draught alcohol-free beer in pubs and bars in England affected the sales of alcoholic beverages and overall revenue.
  • It involved a randomized crossover trial in 14 venues, alternating between periods of selling the alcohol-free option and normal operations over eight weeks.
  • Findings showed that the sale of draught alcoholic beer dropped by 4% to 5% with the introduction of alcohol-free beer, but there was no significant change in total revenue from all drinks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cigarette Smoking and E-cigarette Use Induce Shared DNA Methylation Changes Linked to Carcinogenesis.

Cancer Res

June 2024

European Translational Oncology Prevention and Screening (EUTOPS) Institute, Universität Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.

Unlabelled: Tobacco use is a major modifiable risk factor for adverse health outcomes, including cancer, and elicits profound epigenetic changes thought to be associated with long-term cancer risk. While electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have been advocated as harm reduction alternatives to tobacco products, recent studies have revealed potential detrimental effects, highlighting the urgent need for further research into the molecular and health impacts of e-cigarettes. Here, we applied computational deconvolution methods to dissect the cell- and tissue-specific epigenetic effects of tobacco or e-cigarette use on DNA methylation (DNAme) in over 3,500 buccal/saliva, cervical, or blood samples, spanning epithelial and immune cells at directly and indirectly exposed sites.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • More severe forms of atopic dermatitis and psoriasis significantly impact quality of life, lead to higher healthcare costs, and are linked to other health issues; addressing these problems early can help lessen the burden.
  • The BIOMAP consortium is a large-scale research initiative that compiles clinical and molecular data from various studies to improve the understanding of disease severity and identify reliable biomarkers.
  • The consortium emphasizes the importance of using consistent definitions for disease severity and considers various factors when analyzing data to ensure that findings are relevant to both patients and healthcare practitioners.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Adolescence is a period of heightened vulnerability to developing mental health problems, and rates of mental health disorder in this age group have increased in the last decade. Preventing mental health problems developing before they become entrenched, particularly in adolescents who are at high risk, is an important research and clinical target. Here, we report the protocol for the trial of the 'Building Resilience through Socioemotional Training' (ReSET) intervention.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality and disability globally. We examined healthcare service utilization and costs attributable to CVD in Ireland in the period before the introduction of a major healthcare reform in 2016.

Methods: Secondary analysis of data from 8 113 participants of the first wave of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Urban environmental exposures associate with adult depression, but it is unclear whether they are associated to postpartum depression (PPD).

Objectives: We investigated associations between urban environment exposures during pregnancy and PPD.

Methods: We included women with singleton deliveries to liveborn children from 12 European birth cohorts (N with minimum one exposure = 30,772, analysis N range 17,686-30,716 depending on exposure; representing 26-46 % of the 66,825 eligible women).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Socio-economic deprivation is associated with adverse maternal and childhood outcomes. Epidural analgesia, the gold standard for labour analgesia, may improve maternal well-being. We assessed the association of socio-economic status with utilisation of epidural analgesia and whether this differed when epidural analgesia was advisable for maternal safety.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Recent genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of several individual sleep traits have identified hundreds of genetic loci, suggesting diverse mechanisms. Moreover, sleep traits are moderately correlated, and together may provide a more complete picture of sleep health, while also illuminating distinct domains. Here we construct novel sleep health scores (SHSs) incorporating five core self-report measures: sleep duration, insomnia symptoms, chronotype, snoring, and daytime sleepiness, using additive (SHS-ADD) and five principal components-based (SHS-PCs) approaches.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Impact of weight loss on cancer-related proteins in serum: results from a cluster randomised controlled trial of individuals with type 2 diabetes.

EBioMedicine

February 2024

MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK; Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK; School of Translational Health Sciences, Dorothy Hodgkin Building, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. Electronic address:

Background: Type 2 diabetes is associated with higher risk of several cancer types. However, the biological intermediates driving this relationship are not fully understood. As novel interventions for treating and managing type 2 diabetes become increasingly available, whether they also disrupt the pathways leading to increased cancer risk is currently unknown.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Higher maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) is associated with adverse pregnancy and perinatal outcomes. However, whether these associations are causal remains unclear.

Methods: We explored the relation of maternal pre-/early-pregnancy BMI with 20 pregnancy and perinatal outcomes by integrating evidence from three different approaches (i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To assess whether parental infertility is associated with differences in cardiometabolic trajectories in offspring.

Design: Pooled observational analysis in three prospective cohorts.

Setting: Three nationwide pregnancy cohorts.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Sex-stratified genome-wide association and transcriptome-wide Mendelian randomization studies reveal drug targets of heart failure.

Cell Rep Med

February 2024

Department of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, Shanghai Institute of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; Shanghai National Clinical Research Center for Metabolic Diseases, Key Laboratory for Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases of the National Health Commission, Shanghai National Center for Translational Medicine, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China. Electronic address:

The prevalence of heart failure (HF) subtypes, which are classified by left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), demonstrate significant sex differences. Here, we perform sex-stratified genome-wide association studies (GWASs) on LVEF and transcriptome-wide Mendelian randomization (MR) on LVEF, all-cause HF, HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), and HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The sex-stratified GWASs of LVEF identified three sex-specific loci that were exclusively detected in the sex-stratified GWASs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - This study explores how growth patterns during puberty relate to future health outcomes by analyzing height data from about 56,000 individuals across various ancestries using a technique called SITAR.
  • - The researchers identified 26 significant genetic loci linked to height growth during puberty and found that different growth rates are associated with various health risks, like type 2 diabetes and heart conditions.
  • - The findings suggest that there are multiple growth trajectories during puberty, each influencing adult health differently, indicating that no single growth pattern is the "best" for lifelong health outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Sleep and gut microbiota are emerging putative risk factors for several physical, mental, and cognitive conditions. Sleep deprivation has been shown to be linked with unhealthy microbiome environments in animal studies. However, in humans, the results are mixed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * A study involving 3,393 pregnancies evaluated cognitive function in midlife, assessing various domains like memory and processing speed, 20 years after pregnancy.
  • * The results indicated that women with gestational hypertension showed slight declines in verbal episodic memory, but there was no evidence of accelerated cognitive decline compared to women with normal pregnancies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Fixed-effect meta-analysis has been used to summarize genetic effects on a phenotype across multiple Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) assuming a common underlying genetic effect. Genetic effects may vary with age (or other characteristics), and not allowing for this in a GWAS might lead to bias. Meta-regression models between study heterogeneity and allows effect modification of the genetic effects to be explored.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Blood pressure, grip strength and lung function are frequently assessed in longitudinal population studies, but the measurement devices used differ between studies and within studies over time. We aimed to compare measurements ascertained from different commonly used devices.

Methods: We used a randomised cross-over study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

It has been suggested that glycoprotein acetyls (GlycA) better reflects chronic inflammation than high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), but paediatric/life-course data are sparse. Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) and UK Biobank, we compared short- (over weeks) and long-term (over years) correlations of GlycA and hsCRP, cross-sectional correlations between GlycA and hsCRP, and associations of pro-inflammatory risk factors with GlycA and hsCRP across the life-course. GlycA showed high short-term (weeks) stability at 15 years (r = 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Recognizing the early signs of cancer risk is vital for informing prevention, early detection, and survival.

Methods: To investigate whether changes in circulating metabolites characterize the early stages of colorectal cancer (CRC) development, we examined the associations between a genetic risk score (GRS) associated with CRC liability (72 single-nucleotide polymorphisms) and 231 circulating metabolites measured by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (N = 6221). Linear regression models were applied to examine the associations between genetic liability to CRC and circulating metabolites measured in the same individuals at age 8 y, 16 y, 18 y, and 25 y.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Higher maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) has been associated with higher risk of stillbirth, infant and neonatal mortality. Studies exploring underweight have varied in their conclusions. Our aim was to examine the risk of stillbirth, infant and neonatal mortality across the BMI distribution and establish a likely healthy BMI range.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Osteoporosis and osteoarthritis: a bi-directional Mendelian randomization study.

Arthritis Res Ther

December 2023

Clinical Research Centre, Zhujiang Hospital, The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

Objective: To investigate the causal relationship between low bone mineral density (BMD) and osteoarthritis (OA) using Mendelian randomization (MR) design.

Methods: Two-sample bi-directional MR analyses were performed using summary-level information on OA traits from UK Biobank and arcOGEN. Sensitivity analyses including MR-Egger, simple median, weighted median, MR pleiotropy residual sum, and outlier approaches were utilized in conjunction with inverse variance weighting (IVW).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF