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Vitamin D status does not impact CD, UC
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CHICAGO — Researchers observed no association between vitamin D status and the development of Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, suggesting that vitamin D deficiency does not significantly affect the etiology of inflammatory bowel disease, according to a presentation at Digestive Disease Week.
“If we look at the epidemiological data of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, it has previously been observed that IBD is more common in higher latitudes ... and it has previously been suggested that this might be caused by reduced exposure to ultraviolet B radiation from sunshine, which is in fact a main determinant of vitamin D status,” Jorrit Opstelten, MD, from the department of gastroenterology and hepatology at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands, said in his presentation. “We know that low vitamin D levels are commonly observed in patients with established IBD; however, the question is whether vitamin D deficiency causes Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.”
To determine the association between prediagnostic serum vitamin D levels and dietary intakes of vitamin D, and the risk for developing CD or UC, researchers assessed 359,728 participants who developed CD or UC after enrollment in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort. They further matched each CD and UC case with two controls by center, sex, age, date of recruitment and follow-up time. The investigators examined blood samples and dietary vitamin D intakes obtained at cohort entry, and measured Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. They performed conditional logistic regression to find the probabilities of CD and UC.
At follow-up, 72 participants developed CD and 169 participants developed UC. The results showed median serum vitamin D level was 59.1 nmol/L for CD cases and 60.1 nmol/L for controls. Corresponding values for UC cases and their controls were 54.2 nmol/L and 54.9 nmol/L. Researchers observed no associations with the three higher quartiles of vitamin D concentrations for CD (P = .34) or UC (P = .66) compared with the lowest quartile. Additionally, they detected no associations when they analyzed serum vitamin D levels as a continuous variable. There was also no association between dietary vitamin D intakes and CD (P = .39) or UC (P = .83).
“Vitamin D status was not associated with the development of incident Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis in this prospective observational study of European populations,” Opstelten said. “These findings do not suggest a major role in vitamin D status in etiology of inflammatory bowel disease.” – by Savannah Demko
References:
Opstelten J, et al. Abstract 204. Presented at: Digestive Disease Week; May 6-9, 2017; Chicago.
Disclosure: Opstelten reports no relevant financial disclosures.