We quantified liver, pancreas, heart and kidney fibrosis using MRI T1 mapping in over 40,000 individuals. Using genetic association analyses, we identified a total of 58 loci, 10 of which overlapped across organs. A high burden of fibrosis in three or more organs was associated with an increased risk of mortality.
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References
Distler, J. H. W. et al. Shared and distinct mechanisms of fibrosis. Nat. Rev. Rheumatol. 15, 705–730 (2019). A review article that discusses the different shared and organ-specific pathways that contribute to tissue fibrosis.
Wynn, T. A. Fibrotic disease and the TH1/TH2 paradigm. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 4, 583–594 (2004). This paper provides evidence to support the causal role of CASP9 in renal fibrosis and acute kidney injury.
Nauffal, V. et al. Genetics of myocardial interstitial fibrosis in the human heart and association with disease. Nat. Genet. 55, 777–786 (2023). This paper reports on the genetic determinants of myocardial fibrosis in the UK Biobank and lays the groundwork for our study.
Littlejohns, T. J. et al. The UK Biobank imaging enhancement of 100,000 participants: rationale, data collection, management and future directions. Nat. Commun. 11, 2624 (2020). A review article that describes in detail the MRI protocol in the UK Biobank.
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This is a summary of: Nauffal, V. et al. Noninvasive assessment of organ-specific and shared pathways in multi-organ fibrosis using T1 mapping. Nat. Med. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-03010-w (2024).
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Mapping fibrosis pathways with MRI and genetic association analyses. Nat Med 30, 1543–1544 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-03059-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-03059-7
