EDITORIAL - Vitamin D and autoimmune rheumatic diseases

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Rheumatology Advance Access originally published online on October 17, 2008

Rheumatology 2009 48(3):210-212; doi:10.1093/rheumatology/ken394

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EDITORIALS

Vitamin D and autoimmune rheumatic diseases

M. Cutolo1

1Research Laboratories and Clinical Academic Unit of Rheumatology,

University of Genova, Genova, Italy

Introduction

Vitamin D is classified as a secosteroid in which one of the rings has

been broken, in this case by ultraviolet B sunlight, and the main

source of vitamin D is de novo synthesis in the skin. Although vitamin

D is consumed in food, dietary intake alone is often insufficient,

supplying only 20% of the body's requirements.

In recent years, the discovery of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) in the

cells of the immune system and the fact that several of these cells

produce the vitamin D hormone suggested that it could have

immunoregulatory properties.

However, vitamin D insufficiency is emerging as a clinical problem of

global proportions and epidemiology has linked vitamin D status with

autoimmune disease susceptibility and severity [1].

Therefore, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 [1,25(OH)2D3] the biologically

active metabolite of Vitamin D3, not only regulates bone and calcium

metabolism but also exerts immunomodulation via the nuclear VDR

expressed in antigen-presenting cells and activated T/B cells [2]. In

particular, this regulation is mediated through interference with

nuclear transcription factors such as NF-AT and NF-B or by direct

interaction with vitamin D responsive elements in the promoter regions

of cytokine genes.

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Read the whole editorial here:

http://rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/48/3/210?etoc

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