Correlation of vitamin D and vitamin D receptor expression in patients with alopecia areata: a clinical paradigm
December 2017
in “International Journal of Dermatology”
TLDR People with alopecia areata often have lower vitamin D levels, which are linked to more severe and longer-lasting hair loss, but vitamin D receptor levels in the skin don't show the same pattern and don't predict treatment success.
The study, which included 30 patients with alopecia areata (AA) and 30 healthy controls, found that AA patients had significantly lower mean serum vitamin D levels (7.65 ± 4.50 ng/ml) compared to controls (15.8 ± 11.47 ng/ml), with 96.7% of AA patients being vitamin D deficient. There was an inverse correlation between serum vitamin D levels and both the severity and duration of AA, but no correlation with the pattern of AA or vitamin D receptor (VDR) expression in tissue samples. VDR expression was reduced in AA patients and inversely correlated with the presence of inflammation, but post-treatment VDR upregulation was observed in only 13% of patients and did not correlate with treatment response. The study concluded that while vitamin D deficiency is inversely correlated with the severity and duration of AA, VDR expression does not correlate with serum vitamin D levels, disease severity, pattern, or duration, and may not be a reliable marker for treatment response.
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