Reassessing the association between circulating Vitamin D and IGFBP-3: Observational and Mendelian randomization estimates from independent sources

Background: Circulating insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3) has been associated with prostate cancer. Preclinical studies found that vitamin D regulates IGFBP-3 expression, although evidence from epidemiologic studies is conflicting. Methods: Mendelian randomization analyses (MR) were conducted to reassess associations between IGFBP-3 and prostate cancer risk and advanced prostate cancer using summary statistics from the PRACTICAL consortium (44,825 cases; 27,904 controls). Observational and MR analyses were conducted to assess the relationship between inactive vitamin D [25(OH)D] and IGFBP-3 using data from the ProtecT study (1,366 cases;1,071 controls) and summary statistics from the CHARGE consortium (n = 18,995). Results: The OR for prostate cancer per SD unit increase in circulating IGFBP-3 was 1.14 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.02–1.28]. The OR for advanced prostate cancer per SD unit increase in IGFBP-3 was 1.22 (95% CI, 1.07–1.40). Observationally, a SD increase in 25(OH)D was associated with a 0.1SD (95% CI, 0.05–0.14) increase in IGFBP-3. MR analyses found little evidence for a causal relationship between circulating 25(OH)D and IGFBP-3 in the circulation. Conclusions: This study provided confirmatory evidence that IGFBP-3 is a risk factor for prostate cancer risk and progression. Observationally, there was evidence that 25(OH)D is associated with IGFBP-3, but MR analyses suggested that these findings were unlikely to be causal. Findings may be limited by the nature of instrumentation of 25(OH)D and IGFBP-3 and the utility of circulating measures. 25(OH)D appears unlikely to be causally related to IGFBP-3 in the circulation, however, our findings do not preclude causal associations at the tissue level. Impact: IGFBP-3 is a prostate cancer risk factor but 25(OH)D are unlikely to be causally related to IGFBP-3 in the circulation.