WEDNESDAY, Sept. 4, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Genetic predisposition to high ferritin and serum iron status is associated with a lower risk for developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a study published online Aug. 29 in Global Medical Genetics.

Boyuan Wu, from the School of Global Public Health at New York University in New York City, used genetic data from a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 257,953 individuals to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with iron status. These data were analyzed in conjunction with data on RA from the IEU open GWAS project, composed of 5,427 RA cases and 479,171 controls.

The researchers observed a causal association for genetic predisposition to high ferritin and serum iron status with lower odds of RA, with statistically significant odds ratios of 0.997 for each one-unit increase in ferritin and 0.997 for serum iron. In Mendelian randomization analyses, there was no significant causal association seen between total iron-binding capacity or transferrin saturation percentage with the risk for developing RA.

“Our findings indicate that the total amount of iron in the body, rather than how it is distributed within tissues, might be more important for RA,” the authors write. “This raises the intriguing possibility that iron supplementation could be a preventative strategy, but further research is necessary before making any recommendations.”

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