Abstract
Background
Vitamin D plays a key role in calcium homeostasis and contributes to the regulation of the immune system. Furthermore, vitamin D deficiency has been reported to be associated with autoimmune diseases (AIDs), especially with multiorgan AIDs. Various multiorgan AIDs may be different based on the vitamin D status. This study aims to investigate the serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels in patients with different common multiorgan AIDs.
Methods
A total of 295 patients with multiorgan AIDs treated in our hospital from January 2012 to September 2018 were recruited, including 137 cases of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 85 cases of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 32 cases of Sjögren’s syndrome (SS) and 41 cases of mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD); 47 apparently healthy individuals were also recruited as controls. The serum 25(OH)D levels in patients with different multiorgan AIDs were measured with Roche electrochemiluminescence immunoassay and statistically analyzed the proportion of patients with normal, insufficiency and deficiency in 25(OH)D levels in different multiorgan diseases. The 25(OH)D levels of different multiorgan AID groups and healthy controls were also compared.
Results
Incidences of 25(OH)D deficiency in the RA, SLE, SS and MCTD groups were 21.2%, 35.3%, 25.0% and 22.0%, respectively, with significant inter-group differences (p < 0.05). The incidence in the SLE group was higher than in the RA, SS and MCTD groups, indicating severe 25(OH)D deficiency in patients with SLE. Significant inter-group differences (p < 0.05) were detected in the serum 25(OH)D levels in different multiorgan AID groups and in the healthy control group. Further pairwise comparison found a significantly higher level of 25(OH)D in the healthy control group than in the SLE, SS, RA and MCTD groups (p < 0.05). Moreover, the 25(OH)D status in the SLE group was significantly lower than that in the SLE, SS, RA and MCTD groups (p < 0.05).
Conclusions
Serum 25(OH)D deficiency and a low 25(OH)D status are commonly seen in patients with different multiorgan AIDs compared to healthy controls, warranting vitamin D supplementation. Severe 25(OH)D deficiency and a lower 25(OH)D status were found in patients with SLE.
Reviewed Publication:
Conrad K. Sack U. Edited by:
Award Identifier / Grant number: ZDXKB2016005
Funding source: National Natural Science Foundation of China
Award Identifier / Grant number: 81672100
Funding statement: This study was supported by grants from the Key Laboratory for Laboratory Medicine of Jiangsu Province of China (No. ZDXKB2016005), A Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81672100, funder id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001809).
Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
Employment or leadership: None declared.
Honorarium: None declared.
Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Laboratory Management
- Recommended changes of the current version of the German Rili-BAEK
- Analysis of a 6-year pilot external quality assurance survey of free light chain using Sigma metrics
- Allergy and Autoimmunity
- Different vitamin D status in common multiorgan autoimmune disease patients
- Investigation of the dual cascade algorithm in the diagnosis of antinuclear antibodies
- Neurology Laboratory
- Ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) and dynamic thiol-disulfide homeostasis in patients with postherpetic neuralgia
- Endocrinology
- Effect of hemoglobin F and A2 on hemoglobin A1c determined by cation exchange high-performance liquid chromatography
- Original Article
- A colorimetric method to measure oxidized, reduced and total glutathione levels in erythrocytes
- Short Communication
- Sparing the control arm using well-characterized diagnostic approaches – the Gart and Buck prevalence estimator for efficacy estimation in single-arm trials
- Letter to the Editor
- Ambiguous pharmacogenetic genotyping results in a patient with bone marrow transplantation