Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
Low Vitamin D Linked to Hepatitis B
By Michael Smith, North American Correspondent, MedPage Today
Published: June 08, 2013
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Vitamin D deficiency might be a key player in hepatitis B (HBV) replication, researchers reported.
Low levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D predicted high levels of the virus and vice versa, said Christian Lange, MD, and colleagues at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany, in a retrospective case-control study.
Similarly the seasonal variation in 25-hydroxyvitamin D was reflected in an inverse variation of the virus, suggesting a "functional relationship" between the two, Lange and colleagues reported online in Hepatology.
Chronic HBV is difficult to cure although -- like HIV -- viral replication can be controlled by antiretroviral drugs. Nonetheless, better therapies are needed, Lange and colleagues noted.
"Vitamin D helps maintain a healthy immune system and there is evidence of its role in inflammatory and metabolic liver disease, including infection with hepatitis C virus," Lange said in a statement.
"However, the relationship between vitamin D metabolism and chronic HBV infection remains unknown and is the focus of our present study," he said.
More: MedPageToday
By Michael Smith, North American Correspondent, MedPage Today
Published: June 08, 2013
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Vitamin D deficiency might be a key player in hepatitis B (HBV) replication, researchers reported.
Low levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D predicted high levels of the virus and vice versa, said Christian Lange, MD, and colleagues at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany, in a retrospective case-control study.
Similarly the seasonal variation in 25-hydroxyvitamin D was reflected in an inverse variation of the virus, suggesting a "functional relationship" between the two, Lange and colleagues reported online in Hepatology.
Chronic HBV is difficult to cure although -- like HIV -- viral replication can be controlled by antiretroviral drugs. Nonetheless, better therapies are needed, Lange and colleagues noted.
"Vitamin D helps maintain a healthy immune system and there is evidence of its role in inflammatory and metabolic liver disease, including infection with hepatitis C virus," Lange said in a statement.
"However, the relationship between vitamin D metabolism and chronic HBV infection remains unknown and is the focus of our present study," he said.
More: MedPageToday
