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Vitamin D and autoimmune thyroid diseases

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 8, pages 243–247 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

The role of vitamin D as an immune modulator has been emphasized in recent years, and low levels of the hormone were observed in several autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus. Vitamin D mediates its effect though binding to vitamin D receptor (VDR), and activation of VDR-responsive genes. While VDR gene polymorphism was found to associate with autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITDs), few studies examined levels of vitamin D in these patients and those that did yielded conflicting results. We therefore undertook to evaluate the levels of vitamin D in patients with AITDs compared to patients with non-AITDs and healthy controls. Serum vitamin D (25-OH) levels were measured in 50 patients with AITDs, 42 patients with non-AITDs and 98 healthy subjects, utilizing the LIAISON chemiluminescence immunoassay (DiaSorin, Saluggia, Italy). Vitamin D deficiency was designated at levels lower than 10 ng/ml. Antithyroid antibodies, thyroid functions and demographic parameters were evaluated in all patients. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was significantly higher in patients with AITDs compared with healthy individuals (72% versus 30.6%; P<0.001), as well as in patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis compared to patients with non-AITDs (79% versus 52%; P<0.05). Vitamin D deficiency also correlated to the presence of antithyroid antibodies (P=0.01) and abnormal thyroid function tests (P=0.059). Significantly low levels of vitamin D were documented in patients with AITDs that were related to the presence of anti thyroid antibodies and abnormal thyroid function tests, suggesting the involvement of vitamin D in the pathogenesis of AITDs and the advisability of supplementation.

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Author notes

  1. Shaye Kivity and Nancy Agmon-Levin: *These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Zabludovicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, affiliated to Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Shaye Kivity, Nancy Agmon-Levin, Michael Zisappl, Yinon Shapira & Yehuda Shoenfeld

  2. Department of Medicine ‘A & C’, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel

    Shaye Kivity

  3. Rheumatic Disease Unit, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel

    Shaye Kivity & Pnina Langevitz

  4. Department of Medicine ‘B’, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel

    Nancy Agmon-Levin & Yehuda Shoenfeld

  5. University of Debrecen. Medical and Health Science Center, Debrecen, Hungary

    Endre V Nagy, Katalin Dankó & Zoltan Szekanecz

  6. Incumbent of the Laura Schwarz-Kip Chair for Research of Autoimmune Diseases, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Yehuda Shoenfeld

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Correspondence to Yehuda Shoenfeld.

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Kivity, S., Agmon-Levin, N., Zisappl, M. et al. Vitamin D and autoimmune thyroid diseases. Cell Mol Immunol 8, 243–247 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/cmi.2010.73

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