TY - JOUR A1 - Allan, Eric A1 - Bossdorf, Oliver A1 - Dormann, Carsten F. A1 - Prati, Daniel A1 - Gossner, Martin M. A1 - Tscharntke, Teja A1 - Blüthgen, Nico A1 - Bellach, Michaela A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Boch, Steffen A1 - Böhm, Stefan A1 - Börschig, Carmen A1 - Chatzinotas, Antonis A1 - Christ, Sabina A1 - Daniel, Rolf A1 - Diekötter, Tim A1 - Fischer, Christiane A1 - Friedl, Thomas A1 - Glaser, Karin A1 - Hallmann, Christine A1 - Hodac, Ladislav A1 - Hölzel, Norbert A1 - Jung, Kirsten A1 - Klein, Alexandra-Maria A1 - Klaus, Valentin H. A1 - Kleinebecker, Till A1 - Krauss, Jochen A1 - Lange, Markus A1 - Morris, E. Kathryn A1 - Müller, Jörg A1 - Nacke, Heiko A1 - Pasalic, Esther A1 - Rillig, Matthias C. A1 - Rothenwoehrer, Christoph A1 - Schally, Peter A1 - Scherber, Christoph A1 - Schulze, Waltraud X. A1 - Socher, Stephanie A. A1 - Steckel, Juliane A1 - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf A1 - Türke, Manfred A1 - Weiner, Christiane N. A1 - Werner, Michael A1 - Westphal, Catrin A1 - Wolters, Volkmar A1 - Wubet, Tesfaye A1 - Gockel, Sonja A1 - Gorke, Martin A1 - Hemp, Andreas A1 - Renner, Swen C. A1 - Schöning, Ingo A1 - Pfeiffer, Simone A1 - König-Ries, Birgitta A1 - Buscot, Francois A1 - Linsenmair, Karl Eduard A1 - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef A1 - Weisser, Wolfgang W. A1 - Fischer, Markus T1 - Interannual variation in land-use intensity enhances grassland multidiversity JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America N2 - Although temporal heterogeneity is a well-accepted driver of biodiversity, effects of interannual variation in land-use intensity (LUI) have not been addressed yet. Additionally, responses to land use can differ greatly among different organisms; therefore, overall effects of land-use on total local biodiversity are hardly known. To test for effects of LUI (quantified as the combined intensity of fertilization, grazing, and mowing) and interannual variation in LUI (SD in LUI across time), we introduce a unique measure of whole-ecosystem biodiversity, multidiversity. This synthesizes individual diversity measures across up to 49 taxonomic groups of plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria from 150 grasslands. Multidiversity declined with increasing LUI among grasslands, particularly for rarer species and aboveground organisms, whereas common species and belowground groups were less sensitive. However, a high level of interannual variation in LUI increased overall multidiversity at low LUI and was even more beneficial for rarer species because it slowed the rate at which the multidiversity of rare species declined with increasing LUI. In more intensively managed grasslands, the diversity of rarer species was, on average, 18% of the maximum diversity across all grasslands when LUI was static over time but increased to 31% of the maximum when LUI changed maximally over time. In addition to decreasing overall LUI, we suggest varying LUI across years as a complementary strategy to promote biodiversity conservation. KW - biodiversity loss KW - agricultural grasslands KW - Biodiversity Exploratories Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1312213111 SN - 0027-8424 VL - 111 IS - 1 SP - 308 EP - 313 PB - National Acad. of Sciences CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Allan, Eric A1 - Weisser, Wolfgang W. A1 - Fischer, Markus A1 - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef A1 - Weigelt, Alexandra A1 - Roscher, Christiane A1 - Baade, Jussi A1 - Barnard, Romain L. A1 - Bessler, Holger A1 - Buchmann, Nina A1 - Ebeling, Anne A1 - Eisenhauer, Nico A1 - Engels, Christof A1 - Fergus, Alexander J. F. A1 - Gleixner, Gerd A1 - Gubsch, Marlen A1 - Halle, Stefan A1 - Klein, Alexandra-Maria A1 - Kertscher, Ilona A1 - Kuu, Annely A1 - Lange, Markus A1 - Le Roux, Xavier A1 - Meyer, Sebastian T. A1 - Migunova, Varvara D. A1 - Milcu, Alexandru A1 - Niklaus, Pascal A. A1 - Oelmann, Yvonne A1 - Pasalic, Esther A1 - Petermann, Jana S. A1 - Poly, Franck A1 - Rottstock, Tanja A1 - Sabais, Alexander C. W. A1 - Scherber, Christoph A1 - Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael A1 - Scheu, Stefan A1 - Steinbeiss, Sibylle A1 - Schwichtenberg, Guido A1 - Temperton, Vicky A1 - Tscharntke, Teja A1 - Voigt, Winfried A1 - Wilcke, Wolfgang A1 - Wirth, Christian A1 - Schmid, Bernhard T1 - A comparison of the strength of biodiversity effects across multiple functions JF - Oecologia N2 - In order to predict which ecosystem functions are most at risk from biodiversity loss, meta-analyses have generalised results from biodiversity experiments over different sites and ecosystem types. In contrast, comparing the strength of biodiversity effects across a large number of ecosystem processes measured in a single experiment permits more direct comparisons. Here, we present an analysis of 418 separate measures of 38 ecosystem processes. Overall, 45 % of processes were significantly affected by plant species richness, suggesting that, while diversity affects a large number of processes not all respond to biodiversity. We therefore compared the strength of plant diversity effects between different categories of ecosystem processes, grouping processes according to the year of measurement, their biogeochemical cycle, trophic level and compartment (above- or belowground) and according to whether they were measures of biodiversity or other ecosystem processes, biotic or abiotic and static or dynamic. Overall, and for several individual processes, we found that biodiversity effects became stronger over time. Measures of the carbon cycle were also affected more strongly by plant species richness than were the measures associated with the nitrogen cycle. Further, we found greater plant species richness effects on measures of biodiversity than on other processes. The differential effects of plant diversity on the various types of ecosystem processes indicate that future research and political effort should shift from a general debate about whether biodiversity loss impairs ecosystem functions to focussing on the specific functions of interest and ways to preserve them individually or in combination. KW - Bottom-up effects KW - Carbon cycling KW - Ecological synthesis KW - Ecosystem processes KW - Grasslands KW - Jena experiment KW - Nitrogen cycling Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2589-0 SN - 0029-8549 VL - 173 IS - 1 SP - 223 EP - 237 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Andres, Dorothee A1 - Gohlke, Ulrich A1 - Bröker, Nina Kristin A1 - Schulze, Stefan A1 - Rabsch, Wolfgang A1 - Heinemann, Udo A1 - Barbirz, Stefanie A1 - Seckler, Robert T1 - An essential serotype recognition pocket on phage P22 tailspike protein forces Salmonella enterica serovar Paratyphi A O-antigen fragments to bind as nonsolution conformers JF - Glycobiology N2 - Bacteriophage P22 recognizes O-antigen polysaccharides of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica (S.) with its tailspike protein (TSP). In the serovars S. Typhimurium, S. Enteritidis, and S. Paratyphi A, the tetrasaccharide repeat units of the respective O-antigens consist of an identical main chain trisaccharide but different 3,6-dideoxyhexose substituents. Here, the epimers abequose, tyvelose and paratose determine the specific serotype. P22 TSP recognizes O-antigen octasaccharides in an extended binding site with a single 3,6-dideoxyhexose binding pocket. We have isolated S. Paratyphi A octasaccharides which were not available previously and determined the crystal structure of their complex with P22 TSP. We discuss our data together with crystal structures of complexes with S. Typhimurium and S. Enteritidis octasaccharides determined earlier. Isothermal titration calorimetry showed that S. Paratyphi A octasaccharide binds P22 TSP less tightly, with a difference in binding free energy of similar to 7 kJ mol(-1) at 20 degrees C compared with S. Typhimurium and S. Enteritidis octasaccharides. Individual protein-carbohydrate contacts were probed by amino acid replacements showing that the dideoxyhexose pocket contributes to binding of all three serotypes. However, S. Paratyphi A octasaccharides bind in a conformation with an energetically unfavorable phi/epsilon glycosidic bond angle combination. In contrast, octasaccharides from the other serotypes bind as solution-like conformers. Two water molecules are conserved in all P22 TSP complexes with octasaccharides of different serotypes. They line the dideoxyhexose binding pocket and force the S. Paratyphi A octasaccharides to bind as nonsolution conformers. This emphasizes the role of solvent as part of carbohydrate binding sites. KW - bacterial O-antigen KW - carbohydrate interaction KW - paratose KW - structural thermodynamics KW - tailspike protein Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/glycob/cws224 SN - 0959-6658 VL - 23 IS - 4 SP - 486 EP - 494 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Cary ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Schöning, Ingo A1 - Alt, Fabian A1 - Herold, Nadine A1 - Klarner, Bernhard A1 - Maraun, Mark A1 - Marhan, Sven A1 - Oelmann, Yvonne A1 - Wubet, Tesfaye A1 - Yurkov, Andrey A1 - Begerow, Dominik A1 - Berner, Doreen A1 - Buscot, Francois A1 - Daniel, Rolf A1 - Diekötter, Tim A1 - Ehnes, Roswitha B. A1 - Erdmann, Georgia A1 - Fischer, Christiane A1 - Fösel, Baerbel A1 - Groh, Janine A1 - Gutknecht, Jessica A1 - Kandeler, Ellen A1 - Lang, Christa A1 - Lohaus, Gertrud A1 - Meyer, Annabel A1 - Nacke, Heiko A1 - Näther, Astrid A1 - Overmann, Jörg A1 - Polle, Andrea A1 - Pollierer, Melanie M. A1 - Scheu, Stefan A1 - Schloter, Michael A1 - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef A1 - Schulze, Waltraud X. A1 - Weinert, Jan A1 - Weisser, Wolfgang W. A1 - Wolters, Volkmar A1 - Schrumpf, Marion T1 - General relationships between abiotic soil properties and soil biota across spatial scales and different land-use types JF - PLoS one N2 - Very few principles have been unraveled that explain the relationship between soil properties and soil biota across large spatial scales and different land-use types. Here, we seek these general relationships using data from 52 differently managed grassland and forest soils in three study regions spanning a latitudinal gradient in Germany. We hypothesize that, after extraction of variation that is explained by location and land-use type, soil properties still explain significant proportions of variation in the abundance and diversity of soil biota. If the relationships between predictors and soil organisms were analyzed individually for each predictor group, soil properties explained the highest amount of variation in soil biota abundance and diversity, followed by land-use type and sampling location. After extraction of variation that originated from location or land-use, abiotic soil properties explained significant amounts of variation in fungal, meso-and macrofauna, but not in yeast or bacterial biomass or diversity. Nitrate or nitrogen concentration and fungal biomass were positively related, but nitrate concentration was negatively related to the abundances of Collembola and mites and to the myriapod species richness across a range of forest and grassland soils. The species richness of earthworms was positively correlated with clay content of soils independent of sample location and land-use type. Our study indicates that after accounting for heterogeneity resulting from large scale differences among sampling locations and land-use types, soil properties still explain significant proportions of variation in fungal and soil fauna abundance or diversity. However, soil biota was also related to processes that act at larger spatial scales and bacteria or soil yeasts only showed weak relationships to soil properties. We therefore argue that more general relationships between soil properties and soil biota can only be derived from future studies that consider larger spatial scales and different land-use types. Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0043292 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 7 IS - 8 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Birukov, Anna A1 - Polemiti, Elli A1 - Jaeger, Susanne A1 - Stefan, Norbert A1 - Schulze, Matthias Bernd T1 - Fetuin-A and risk of diabetes-related vascular complications BT - a prospective study JF - Cardiovascular diabetology N2 - Background Fetuin-A is a hepatokine which has the capacity to prevent vascular calcification. Moreover, it is linked to the induction of metabolic dysfunction, insulin resistance and associated with increased risk of diabetes. It has not been clarified whether fetuin-A associates with risk of vascular, specifically microvascular, complications in patients with diabetes. We aimed to investigate whether pre-diagnostic plasma fetuin-A is associated with risk of complications once diabetes develops. Methods Participants with incident type 2 diabetes and free of micro- and macrovascular disease from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Potsdam cohort (n = 587) were followed for microvascular and macrovascular complications (n = 203 and n = 60, respectively, median follow-up: 13 years). Plasma fetuin-A was measured approximately 4 years prior to diabetes diagnosis. Prospective associations between baseline fetuin-A and risk of complications were assessed with Cox regression. Results In multivariable models, fetuin-A was linearly inversely associated with incident total and microvascular complications, hazard ratio (HR, 95% CI) per standard deviation (SD) increase: 0.86 (0.74; 0.99) for total, 0.84 (0.71; 0.98) for microvascular and 0.92 (0.68; 1.24) for macrovascular complications. After additional adjustment for cardiometabolic plasma biomarkers, including triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein, the associations were slightly attenuated: 0.88 (0.75; 1.02) for total, 0.85 (0.72; 1.01) for microvascular and 0.95 (0.67; 1.34) for macrovascular complications. No interaction by sex could be observed (p > 0.10 for all endpoints). Conclusions Our data show that lower plasma fetuin-A levels measured prior to the diagnosis of diabetes may be etiologically implicated in the development of diabetes-associated microvascular disease. KW - Fetuin-A KW - biomarkers KW - epidemiology KW - Type 2 diabetes KW - vascular disease; KW - vascular calcification KW - microvascular complications Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-021-01439-8 SN - 1475-2840 VL - 21 IS - 1 PB - BMC CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Christakoudi, Sofa A1 - Tsilidis, Konstantinos K. A1 - Muller, David C. A1 - Freisling, Heinz A1 - Weiderpass, Elisabete A1 - Overvad, Kim A1 - Söderberg, Stefan A1 - Häggström, Christel A1 - Pischon, Tobias A1 - Dahm, Christina C. A1 - Zhang, Jie A1 - Tjønneland, Anne A1 - Schulze, Matthias Bernd T1 - A Body Shape Index (ABSI) achieves better mortality risk stratification than alternative indices of abdominal obesity: results from a large European cohort JF - Scientific Reports N2 - Abdominal and general adiposity are independently associated with mortality, but there is no consensus on how best to assess abdominal adiposity. We compared the ability of alternative waist indices to complement body mass index (BMI) when assessing all-cause mortality. We used data from 352,985 participants in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) and Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for other risk factors. During a mean follow-up of 16.1 years, 38,178 participants died. Combining in one model BMI and a strongly correlated waist index altered the association patterns with mortality, to a predominantly negative association for BMI and a stronger positive association for the waist index, while combining BMI with the uncorrelated A Body Shape Index (ABSI) preserved the association patterns. Sex-specific cohort-wide quartiles of waist indices correlated with BMI could not separate high-risk from low-risk individuals within underweight (BMI<18.5 kg/m(2)) or obese (BMI30 kg/m(2)) categories, while the highest quartile of ABSI separated 18-39% of the individuals within each BMI category, which had 22-55% higher risk of death. In conclusion, only a waist index independent of BMI by design, such as ABSI, complements BMI and enables efficient risk stratification, which could facilitate personalisation of screening, treatment and monitoring. KW - all-cause mortality KW - anthropometric measures KW - mass index KW - overweight KW - cancer KW - prediction KW - adiposity KW - size Y1 - 2020 VL - 10 IS - 1 PB - Springer Nature CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Eckel, Nathalie A1 - Li, Yanping A1 - Kuxhaus, Olga A1 - Stefan, Norbert A1 - Hu, Frank B. A1 - Schulze, Matthias Bernd T1 - Transition from metabolic healthy to unhealthy phenotypes and association with cardiovascular disease risk across BMI categories in 90 257 women (the Nurses' Health Study) BT - 30 year follow-up from a prospective cohort study JF - The lancet diabetes & endocrinology N2 - Background Cardiovascular disease risk among individuals across different categories of BMI might depend on their metabolic health. It remains unclear to what extent metabolic health status changes over time and whether this affects cardiovascular disease risk. In this study, we aimed to examine the association between metabolic health and its change over time and cardiovascular disease risk across BMI categories. Findings During 2 127 391 person-years of follow-up with a median follow-up of 24 years, we documented 6306 cases of cardiovascular disease including 3304 myocardial infarction cases and 3080 strokes. Cardiovascular disease risk of women with metabolically healthy obesity was increased compared with women with metabolically healthy normal weight (HR 1.39, 95% CI 1.15-1.68), but risk was considerably higher in women with metabolically unhealthy normal weight (2.43, 2.19-2.68), overweight (2.61, 2.36-2.89) and obesity (3.15, 2.83-3.50). The majority of metabolically healthy women converted to unhealthy phenotypes (2555 [84%] of 3027 women with obesity, 22 215 [68%] of 32 882 women with normal-weight after 20 years). Women who maintained metabolically healthy obesity during follow-up were still at a higher cardiovascular disease risk compared with women with stable healthy normal weight (HR 1.57, 1.03-2.38), yet this risk was lower than for initially metabolically healthy women who converted to an unhealthy phenotype (normal-weight 1.90, 1.66-2.17 vs obesity 2.74, 2.30-3.27). Particularly incident diabetes and hypertension increased the risk among women with initial metabolic health. Interpretation Even when metabolic health is maintained during long periods of time, obesity remains a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. However, risks are highest for metabolically unhealthy women across all BMI categories. A large proportion of metabolically healthy women converted to an unhealthy phenotype over time across all BMI categories, which is associated with an increased cardiovascular disease risk. Copyright (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(18)30137-2 SN - 2213-8587 VL - 6 IS - 9 SP - 714 EP - 724 PB - Elsevier CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heinze, Eric A1 - Boch, Steffen A1 - Fischer, Markus A1 - Hessenmöller, Dominik A1 - Klenk, Bernd A1 - Müller, Jörg A1 - Prati, Daniel A1 - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef A1 - Seele, Carolin A1 - Socher, Stephanie A1 - Halle, Stefan T1 - Habitat use of large ungulates in northeastern Germany in relation to forest management JF - Forest ecology and management N2 - Estimating large herbivore density has been a major area of research in recent decades. Previous studies monitoring ungulate density, however, focused mostly on determining animal abundance, and did not interpret animal distribution in relation to habitat parameters. We surveyed large ungulates in the Biodiversity Exploratory Schorfheide-Chorin using faecal pellet group counts. This allowed us to explore the link between relative ungulate abundance, habitat use, and browsing damage on trees in a region with several types of forest, including unharvested and age-class beech forests, as well as age-class pine forests. Our results demonstrate that roe deer and fallow deer relative abundance is negatively correlated with large tree cover, and positively correlated with the cover of small shrubs (Rubus spec., Vaccinium spec.), and winter food supply. Habitat use of roe deer and fallow deer, as estimated by counting faecal pellet groups, revealed a preference for mature pine forests, and avoidance of deciduous forests. This differential habitat use is explained by different distributions of high quality food resources during winter. The response of deer to understory cover differed between roe deer and fallow deer at high cover percentages. The amount of browsing damage we observed on coniferous trees was not consistent with the relative deer abundance. Browsing damage was consistently higher on most deciduous trees, except for beech saplings which sustained less damage when roe deer density was low. Because roe deer is a highly selective feeder, it was reported to affect tree diversity by feeding only on trees with high nutritional value. Consequently, we propose that managing the number of all deer species by hunting is necessary to allow successful forest regeneration. Such an adjustment to deer numbers would need to account for both current tree diversity and alternative food resources. Our findings may be applicable to other forest landscapes in northeastern Germany including mature pine stands and differently harvested deciduous forests. KW - Large ungulates KW - Faecal pellet group count KW - Forest management KW - Browsing damage Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2010.10.022 SN - 0378-1127 VL - 261 IS - 2 SP - 288 EP - 296 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Keller, Johannes A1 - Catala-Lehnen, Philip A1 - Huebner, Antje K. A1 - Jeschke, Anke A1 - Heckt, Timo A1 - Lueth, Anja A1 - Krause, Matthias A1 - Koehne, Till A1 - Albers, Joachim A1 - Schulze, Jochen A1 - Schilling, Sarah A1 - Haberland, Michael A1 - Denninger, Hannah A1 - Neven, Mona A1 - Hermans-Borgmeyer, Irm A1 - Streichert, Thomas A1 - Breer, Stefan A1 - Barvencik, Florian A1 - Levkau, Bodo A1 - Rathkolb, Birgit A1 - Wolf, Eckhard A1 - Calzada-Wack, Julia A1 - Neff, Frauke A1 - Gailus-Durner, Valerie A1 - Fuchs, Helmut A1 - de Angelis, Martin Hrabe A1 - Klutmann, Susanne A1 - Tsourdi, Elena A1 - Hofbauer, Lorenz C. A1 - Kleuser, Burkhard A1 - Chun, Jerold A1 - Schinke, Thorsten A1 - Amling, Michael T1 - Calcitonin controls bone formation by inhibiting the release of sphingosine 1-phosphate from osteoclasts JF - Nature Communications N2 - The hormone calcitonin (CT) is primarily known for its pharmacologic action as an inhibitor of bone resorption, yet CT-deficient mice display increased bone formation. These findings raised the question about the underlying cellular and molecular mechanism of CT action. Here we show that either ubiquitous or osteoclast-specific inactivation of the murine CT receptor (CTR) causes increased bone formation. CT negatively regulates the osteoclast expression of Spns2 gene, which encodes a transporter for the signalling lipid sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P). CTR-deficient mice show increased S1P levels, and their skeletal phenotype is normalized by deletion of the S1P receptor S1P(3). Finally, pharmacologic treatment with the nonselective S1P receptor agonist FTY720 causes increased bone formation in wild-type, but not in S1P(3)-deficient mice. This study redefines the role of CT in skeletal biology, confirms that S1P acts as an osteoanabolic molecule in vivo and provides evidence for a pharmacologically exploitable crosstalk between osteoclasts and osteoblasts. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6215 SN - 2041-1723 VL - 5 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kroeger, Janine A1 - Meidtner, Karina A1 - Stefan, Norbert A1 - Guevara, Marcela A1 - Kerrison, Nicola D. A1 - Ardanaz, Eva A1 - Aune, Dagfinn A1 - Boeing, Heiner A1 - Dorronsoro, Miren A1 - Dow, Courtney A1 - Fagherazzi, Guy A1 - Franks, Paul W. A1 - Freisling, Heinz A1 - Gunter, Marc J. A1 - Maria Huerta, Jose A1 - Kaaks, Rudolf A1 - Key, Timothy J. A1 - Khaw, Kay Tee A1 - Krogh, Vittorio A1 - Kuehn, Tilman A1 - Mancini, Francesca Romana A1 - Mattiello, Amalia A1 - Nilsson, Peter M. A1 - Olsen, Anja A1 - Overvad, Kim A1 - Palli, Domenico A1 - Ramon Quiros, J. A1 - Rolandsson, Olov A1 - Sacerdote, Carlotta A1 - Sala, Nuria A1 - Salamanca-Fernandez, Elena A1 - Sluijs, Ivonne A1 - Spijkerman, Annemieke M. W. A1 - Tjonneland, Anne A1 - Tsilidis, Konstantinos K. A1 - Tumino, Rosario A1 - van der Schouw, Yvonne T. A1 - Forouhi, Nita G. A1 - Sharp, Stephen J. A1 - Langenberg, Claudia A1 - Riboli, Elio A1 - Schulze, Matthias Bernd A1 - Wareham, Nicholas J. T1 - Circulating Fetuin-A and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes BT - a mendelian randomization analysis JF - Diabetes : a journal of the American Diabetes Association N2 - Fetuin-A, a hepatic-origin protein, is strongly positively associated with risk of type 2 diabetes in human observational studies, but it is unknown whether this association is causal. Weaimed to study the potential causal relation of circulating fetuin-A to risk of type 2 diabetes in a Mendelian randomization study with single nucleotide polymorphisms located in the fetuin-A-encoding AHSG gene. We used data from eight European countries of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-InterAct case-cohort study including 10,020 incident cases. Plasma fetuin-A concentration was measured in a subset of 965 subcohort participants and 654 case subjects. A genetic score of the AHSG single nucleotide polymorphisms was strongly associated with fetuin-A (28% explained variation). Using the genetic score as instrumental variable of fetuin-A, we observed no significant association of a 50 mu g/mL higher fetuin-A concentration with diabetes risk (hazard ratio 1.02 [95% CI 0.97, 1.07]). Combining our results with those from the DIAbetes Genetics Replication And Meta-analysis (DIAGRAM) consortium (12,171 case subjects) also did not suggest a clear significant relation of fetuin-A with diabetes risk. In conclusion, although there is mechanistic evidence for an effect of fetuin-A on insulin sensitivity and secretion, this study does not support a strong, relevant relationship between circulating fetuin-A and diabetes risk in the general population. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2337/db17-1268 SN - 0012-1797 SN - 1939-327X VL - 67 IS - 6 SP - 1200 EP - 1205 PB - American Diabetes Association CY - Alexandria ER -