Sarcopenia is a gradual and systemic skeletal muscle disease characterized by a loss of skeletal muscle mass or function that happens regularly with aging and is associated with an increased risk of poor outcomes such as falls, disability, impaired function, frailty, hospitalization, and mortality (1–4). Sarcopenia was classified as a disease by the World Health Organization in 2016 and given an International Classification of Diseases-10 code (5). Sarcopenia can be primary (age-related) or accompany a variety of chronic illnesses in middle age appendiceal skeletal muscle mass, such as inflammation, malnutrition, neoplastic disease, or organ failure (1, 6, 7). According to estimates, sarcopenia affects 10% to 16% of aged people worldwide (8). Along with older persons, those who are underweight, women, and those who have other chronic ailments are more susceptible to developing sarcopenia and its detrimental effects on their health (9). Sarcopenia incidence is rising quickly as the world’s population ages (10, 11), and by 2050, 500 million people are expected to have the condition (12).

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an idiopathic inflammatory illness of the gastrointestinal tract that comprises Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) (13). Over the last decade, the prevalence of IBD has increased worldwide (14). Muscle loss is a typical pathophysiological aspect of many chronic gastrointestinal illnesses, including IBD (15). When compared to healthy individuals, patients with IBD have a lower lean body mass composition and reduced muscle mass by up to 60% (14, 16). Even at a young age, patients with IBD might develop sarcopenia (17). Sarcopenia may exist even in IBD patients in remission (18). When IBD patients are divided into those who are UC or CD, those who are CD have a higher frequency of sarcopenia than those who are UC (52% vs. 37%, respectively) (17). Sarcopenia affects up to 50% of IBD patients and is related to adverse clinical outcomes (19), such as longer hospitalization, intestinal resection, and an increased risk of post-operative complications (15, 20, 21).

Several previous studies have shown that patients with sarcopenia have a higher risk of developing IBD and vice versa (8, 15, 17, 18, 22). However, Pedersen et al. found no difference in the incidence of sarcopenia between people with IBD and those without IBD (23). The relationship between sarcopenia and IBD is unclear and controversial, and their genetically predicted causal effect remains unexplored. Here, we aim to evaluate the causality between Sarcopenia-related traits and IBD and its subtypes (UC and CD) using a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) design. MR is a genetic epidemiological research method that greatly improves the ability to investigate the causal relationship between traits and diseases because it addresses some of the common drawbacks of traditional epidemiological studies (such as reverse causation) and ensures that results are unaffected by confounding factors (24, 25). This study was conducted in both directions (i.e. bidirectional MR), as this is also an advantageous strategy to orient the direction of causal effects between two variables (26).

Using a two-sample MR analytic approach, which is an extension of MR where the effects of genetic instruments on exposure and outcome are extracted from two different datasets, we evaluated the causality between sarcopenia-related characteristics and IBD and its subtypes (CD and UC) (27).The three core MR assumptions for assuming causal relationship are as follows (1): the genetic variants have a strong connection to the exposure (2); there don’t exist unmeasured confounders of the associations between outcome and genetic variants; and (3) the genetic variants effect the outcome just via the exposure (28).

Due to the fact that the current study is a secondary analysis of data that is available to the public, no separate ethical approval was necessary. The GWAS summary statistics are accessible at https://gwas.mrcieu.ac.uk/. The details of GWAS used to get the summary statistics for each trait are listed in Supplementary Table 1 . The flowchart of the bidirectional MR design is shown in Figure 1A .

In conclusion, we investigated the causality between sarcopenia and IBD on each other using large-scale GWAS summary data. MR analyses indicated a potential causal relationship between ALM and IBD and revealed that more ALM is a protective factor for IBD, UC, and CD. Furthermore, we found evidence of a potential causal role for the usual walking pace in CD. In the inverse MR analysis, genetically predicted IBD and CD were significantly associated with a lower ALM. No evidence supported the causal relationship between handgrip strength with IBD and its subtypes (UC and CD).

Previous research has demonstrated that a variety of factors, including chronic inflammation, malnutrition, vitamin deficiency, and an imbalance in the muscle-gut axis, might contribute to sarcopenia (52). IBD patients are at risk for weight loss, malnutrition, and long-term glucocorticoid usage, all of which have an adverse effect on muscular strength and mass. The premature and “accelerated” sarcopenia development has been found in other populations affected by factors such as malnutrition, chronic inflammation, and immobility, which are associated with IBD (36). Another study also found that individuals with IBD had fewer skeletal muscle and bone masses, with more visceral and “creeping” fat (53). Saul et al. discovered that experimental IBD mice exhibited lower skeletal muscle weight and fiber size, as well as lower muscle protein content in the gastrocnemius and quadriceps (54). According to numerous investigations, sarcopenia correlates with the severity of IBD and assists in determining treatment decisions for patients with IBD (55–57). In a recent meta-analysis, 52% of CD patients and 37% of UC patients experienced sarcopenia (17). These findings are significant because sarcopenia is known to have a considerable influence on duration of hospital stay, surgical outcomes, life quality, and mortality (22, 41, 58).

In reality, sarcopenia may be a practical and accessible risk assessment tool for people with IBD, such as the necessity for surgical intervention and post-operative complications (6). Currently, there is no curative treatment for CD, whereas UC can be cured by a pan proctocolectomy (59). It can have even more negative effects when sarcopenia and IBD coexist, previous research revealed that patients with CD who were sarcopenic had a higher risk of adverse events and intestinal resection than those who weren’t sarcopenic (15, 60). In a study of 72 IBD patients, sarcopenia significantly increased the risk of intestinal resection (23). The chance of postoperative complications in IBD was shown to be more than six times higher in people with sarcopenia, according to a meta-analysis (61). As a result, sarcopenia is a crucial therapeutic and prognostic consideration in the management of IBD.

Although the exact cause of sarcopenia in IBD patients is still unknown, there is evidence that it may be brought on by drug interactions, malabsorption, poor protein intake, chronic inflammation, and reduced physical activity (62). Recent research has also demonstrated that the insulin-like growth factor 1, phosphoinositide 3 kinase, protein kinase B, and mammalian target of rapamycin (IGF1/PI3K/Akt/mTOR) axis dysregulation is associated with a decrease in IGF1-R in muscle tissues from IBD patients (63). Sarcopenia is frequently associated with malnutrition as a result of chronic persistent inflammation (64). IBD patients usually have poor nutritional status, and it is known that malnutrition is a significant factor in the loss of muscle mass and the ensuing loss of function (58). Although the direct causality between sarcopenia and inflammation has not been established, there is evidence of an association within the context of IBD (65). A study of 441 adults over the age of 60 found that sarcopenic older people had significantly higher levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) – α and circulating interleukin (IL)-6 (66).

Sarcopenia involves muscle loss and dysfunction, causing systolic dysfunction, endocrine and metabolic abnormalities, and affecting metabolic and immune/inflammatory responses throughout the body (67). In our MR Results, genetically predicted ALM was strongly associated with IBD and its subtypes. ALM is primarily affected by skeletal muscle mass, which also has endocrine functions that affect inflammatory response and systemic metabolism (67, 68). Low muscle mass is common in IBD patients (69, 70). Studies have shown that levels of pro-inflammatory factors, including CRP, IL-6, and TNF-α, are inversely correlated with ALM (71, 72). Sarcopenia is associated with factors such as progressive increase in fibrosis, chronic inflammatory state, altered muscle metabolism, and degeneration of the neuromuscular junction (73). From a mechanistic perspective, chronic inflammation is most likely associated with sarcopenia leading to IBD. In addition, fatigue and reduced quality of life associated with muscle loss can also contribute to the progression of IBD (74, 75). Studies have also revealed that individuals with IBD had lower grip strength values, however these studies only analyzed the differences in grip strength values between individuals with IBD and controls, not the prevalence of low grip strength (76, 77). In our study, no relationship between IBD and grip strength was found. This may be because IBD is not linked to low grip strength but rather grip strength reduction. However, since recognition of sarcopenia is relatively recent, the mechanism by which sarcopenia leads to IBD remains to be further investigated.

Despite the high prevalence and clinical significance of sarcopenia in IBD patients, few patients receive routine muscle assessment. Furthermore, due to the screening tools are not accurate, most cases of sarcopenia go undetected (78). Given the aging population, an increase in sarcopenia management healthcare costs is to be expected (79). Currently, physical activity is advised as the primary treatment for sarcopenia, and numerous studies have also demonstrated the effectiveness and safety of physical exercise among patients with IBD (7, 80, 81). Additionally, nutritional intervention is also an essential component in treating IBD patients, which may reduce the inflammatory state and the risk of sarcopenia (82, 83).It has also been shown that infliximab therapy can reverse IBD-associated sarcopenia in individuals with active Crohn’s disease, with 6 months of treatment leading to significant improvements in skeletal muscle volume and maximum isokinetic strength (84). Muscle health should be evaluated regularly in all IBD patients, and effective management of sarcopenia in IBD will assist improve prognosis.

This is the first two-sample MR study to investigate the causal association between sarcopenia-related traits and IBD. The main strength of this study is the MR analysis design, which reduces some of the limitations in observational studies, such as confounding and reverse causality. Additionally, sensitivity studies were carried out to assess the robustness of this study’s findings and to assure the consistency of the causal estimations, while several MR analysis techniques were used to verify the accuracy and validity of the results. Notwithstanding the strengths of our study, there are several limitations. First, we employed ALM rather than appendiceal skeletal muscle mass to measure muscle mass because bias in other non-fat soft tissue components such the lung and kidney could affect the results. Second, we were unable to determine the causal link between genetically predicted sarcopenia and IBD in different genders and age groups due to the paucity of data stratified by sex and age. Given that the onset factors of sarcopenia and inflammatory bowel disease are related to age and gender (85–87). Third, the generalizability of our conclusions to other ethnicities may be limited because the results of our study were based on people of European ancestry. Fourth, even if confounding factors were removed in this study, it is difficult to completely remove mediation and pleiotropy, and a larger scale GWAS are needed to verify the results.

Our MR Results support a bidirectional causal relationship between IBD, CD, and ALM, but such a bidirectional causal relationship was not found in UC. Furthermore, the genetically predicted usual walking pace was causally associated with CD. Our novel insights may provide a better reference for the identification, evaluation, and management of sarcopenia in IBD patients. In order to enhance clinical prognosis, we emphasized that IBD patients should receive proper nutrition and strengthen exercise to combat sarcopenia.

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/ Supplementary Material , further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

X-JZ, J-BL and S-FZ conceived and designed this research. XJ and W-YW performed data analyses, interpreted results, and drafted the manuscript. X-JZ reviewed the final manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.