Poster Presentation Australian Diabetes Society and the Australian Diabetes Educators Association Annual Scientific Meeting 2014

Vitamin D is related to glucose metabolism and chronic low-grade inflammation in healthy normoglycaemic individuals  (#389)

Aya Mousa 1 , Negar Naderpoor 1 , Jasmine Lyons 2 , Georgia Soldatos 3 , Karly Sourris 2 , Sonia Dougherty 2 , Helena Teede 1 4 , Maximilian de Courten 5 , Josephine Forbes 6 , Barbora de Courten 1
  1. Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
  2. Baker IDI, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  3. Southern Heallth, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  4. Monash Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  5. Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  6. Mater Medical Research Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Objective:  There is growing evidence suggesting that low vitamin D may be related to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It has been suggested that this relationship is mediated via chronic low-grade inflammation. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between vitamin D and glucose homeostasis, cardiovascular risk factors and markers of inflammation in healthy normoglycaemic individuals.

Methods: We measured circulating 1,25-hydroxyvitamin D3, waist to hip ratio (WHR), body mass index (BMI), adiposity (dual energy x-ray absorptiometry), fasting and 2 hour glucose (OGTT), insulin sensitivity (M, hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp), blood pressure, lipid profile, white blood cell count, circulating CRP, IL6, MCP-1, TNF alpha levels (ELISA), and NF-KB activity in peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMC, DNA-binding assay) in 49 healthy, non-diabetic adults [28F/21M, age 31±10y and BMI 28.4±4.6kg (mean ± SD)].

Results: Mean vitamin D level was 48±24.5nmol/l with no significant gender difference (p=0.2). Vitamin D levels were significantly related to fasting glucose (r=-0.31, p=0.03) but not 2-hour glucose (r=0.15, p=0.3) or insulin sensitivity (r=0.02, p=0.9). Vitamin D was not related to measures of obesity nor to cardiovascular risk factors including blood pressure and lipid profiles (all p>0.1). Vitamin D was related to NF-ΚB in PBMC (r=0.33, p=0.03) but not to plasma inflammation markers (all p>0.1). After adjusting for age, gender, BMI and WHR, vitamin D remained significantly related to both fasting glucose (p=0.0001), and NF-ΚB (p=0.006).

Conclusions: These cross-sectional data from a metabolically well-characterized cohort of healthy normoglycaemic individuals suggest a role for vitamin D in glucose homeostasis and chronic low-grade inflammation. Large-scale intervention studies are needed to further investigate the role of vitamin D in the pathophysiology and prevention of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.