Vit D

Vitamin D Gene Changes May Drive Disease

By Cole Petrochko, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Published: November 13, 2012

Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

Action Points

• Certain variations in the vitamin D receptor gene may influence the clinical effects of low vitamin D levels in some chronic diseases.
• Note that patients in the cohort without the genetic polymorphism showed no association between low 25(OH)D levels and outcomes such as hip fracture, myocardial infarction, cancer, and death.

Variations in the vitamin D receptor gene may influence the clinical effects of low vitamin D levels in some chronic diseases, researchers found.

Among patients with low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) in a U.S.-based cohort, the presence of one risk allele at rs7968585 was associated with a 40% increased risk for potentially fatal composite clinical outcomes, including hip fracture, myocardial infarction, cancer, and death (hazard ratio 1.40, 95% CI 1.12 to 1.74) according to Gregory Levin, PhD, of the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues.

The presence of two risk alleles was linked with an 82% increased risk (HR 1.82, 95% CI 1.31 to 2.54), they said./.../