Serum vitamin D level is related to disease progression in primary biliary cholangitis

Abstract

Background and aim

A nonskeletal role of vitamin D in primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) patients is not yet clear. The purpose of this study is to investigate the serum vitamin D level in patients with PBC and to explore whether serum vitamin D level is related to disease progression.

Methods

The serum levels of 25(OH)D₃ were measured in 185 PBC patients and 141 healthy controls. The association with vitamin D levels and disease progression, particularly natural course, was assessed.

Results

Serum vitamin D levels were measured in 185 patients with PBC. The mean level of vitamin D in advanced stage patients was lower than that in early stage patients (9.15 ± 5.33 ng/ml vs. 13.68 ± 6.33 ng/ml, p = .000). In the follow-up patients, the vitamin D level in the taken calcitriol patients showed an upward trend, while the un-taken calcitriol patients was opposite. Besides, vitamin D levels were correlated with the changes of bilirubin, albumin (ALB) and APRI (p<.05). PBC patients with vitamin D deficiency had higher bilirubin levels and lower ALB levels (p<.05). Moreover, there were differences in serum vitamin D levels between taken calcitriol patients and un-taken calcitriol patients (p = .027).

Conclusions

Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in PBC patients. The decrease of vitamin D levels may indicate disease progression in PBC. PBC patients need to be regularly measured for serum vitamin D level and take appropriate vitamin D supplementation.

Keywords:

• Autoimmune liver disease
• disease progression
• natural course
• primary biliary cholangitis (PBC)
• vitamin D

Acknowledgements

The authors express special gratitude to The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University and Medical department of Qingdao University for their assistance in the research.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Data availability statement

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [81971997] and the Young Scientific Research Fund [The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, 20141201].