Causal relationship between systemic lupus erythematosus and primary liver cirrhosis based on two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization and transcriptome overlap analysis.

The two-sample bidirectional MR analysis revealed that SLE and PBC were high-risk factors for each other, indicating that they had similar genetic bases, which could to some extent overcome the limitation of insufficient overlap in case samples of SLE and PBC. The analysis of transcriptome overlapping hub genes provided a theoretical basis for the potential mechanisms and therapeutic targets of SLE with PBC overlapping cases.