Can Vitamin D Slow Progression of Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic and prevalent joint disease resulting in degenerative changes in the cartilage. Now-a-days vitamin-D is emerging as an important component which has a wide biological effects. The studies are evaluating the beneficial effects of vitamin-D in osteoarthritis therefore the present investigation was planned to analyze i) levels of vitamin-D in selected controls and OA patients, ii) monitor gene expression changes in CYP2R1, CYP3A4, CYP27B1, CYP24A1 and CYP27A1, whose products are involved in vitamin D metabolism. Our result shows that there was no significant difference in the vitamin-D levels in OA versus controls. The mean vitamin D levels in controls was 35.9 ng/ml (3 had ViD<20g/ml) and in OA patients was 35.66 ng/ml (3 had Vit D<20ng/ml). However gene expression of CYP2R1, CYP3A4 was reduced CYP24A1, CYP27B1 showed no variation in expression and CYP27A1 was upregulated in OA patients as compared to control. We could not observe significant difference in the levels of vitamin D in control and patient showing that onset of primary OA may not be because of vitamin D deficiency or vitamin D may not be responsible for symptoms of OA. However its supplementation may have therapeutic benefits to all including control and patients as vitamin D levels are not optimum in both. Lower gene expression of cytochrome p 450 genes suggest some effects on OA patients but these are related to age or post-menopausal stage or OA is not clear as in our study we were unable to obtain primary OA patients without any comorbidity with <55 years of age. OA in less than 55 years are mostly associated with comorbid conditions as diabetes, hypertention, thyroid, obesity, chronic gastrointestinal disturbance, kidney or liver disease, with trauma etc.