VITAMIN D : INTERESTINNON-PHOSPHOCALCICPATHOLOGIES.
Etienne CAVALIER
Department of Clinical Chemistry
University of Liège, University Hospital of Liège Domaine du Sart-Tilman
B-4000, Liège BELGIUM.
The role of vitamin D (VTD) in maintaining bone health has been known for decades.
Recently, however, the discovery that many tissues expressed the VTD receptor and were able to transform the 25-OH VTD into its most active metabolite, 1,25-(OH)2 VTD, has led to a very promising future for this “old” molecule. Indeed, observational studies, and more and more interventional studies, are raising the importance of a significant VTD supplementation for not-only skeletal benefits. Amongst them, 25-OH VTD has been found to play an
important role in preventing from many diseases, like cancers [1], risk of falls in the elderly [2;3], cardiovascular diseases [4], diabetes [5], infections [6] and even total mortality [7]. Vitamin D deficiency, defined as serum 25-OH VTD levels <30 ng/ml, is very common in our populations. The ratio cost/benefit and the recently published studies are clearly now in favour of a controlled and efficient vitamin D supplementation in these patients presenting a 25-OH VTD level < 30 ng/ml. More attention should also be paid for pregnant and lactating women, as well as children and adolescents.
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