Vitamin D deficiency and Its Link with Inflammatory Markers in Women

Aim: Nowadays the ‘‘sunshine’’ vitamin attracts full attention toward its anti-inflammatory role that is much beyond its classical role in bone metabolism. Vitamin D deficiency is a major health issue that affects people of all ages, especially elderly women. With increasing age, women are at high risk of several metabolic diseases. This study aims to determine the levels of serum vitamin D and inflammatory markers in premenopausal and postmenopausal women.

Methods: A total of 500 female subjects were included in the study, with 400 pre- & postmenopausal women were considered as cases while 100 subjects were considered as control healthy women. Serum Vitamin D was estimated by chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay method. Inflammatory markers, Interleukin-6 (IL-6), and highly sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) were assayed in serum by using standard immunoassay method. Serum Estradiol (E2) was estimated by the competitive immunoassay method in all studied female subjects. Data were analyzed by using SPSS software, version 22.0.

Result: Serum Vitamin D levels were significantly decreased while inflammatory markers were significantly increased (p<0.001) in pre-and postmenopausal women as compared with control healthy women. Serum estradiol was also significantly decreased in postmenopausal women. We also found a significant negative correlation between vitamin D deficiency and inflammatory markers in both pre-and postmenopausal women.

Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency is more common in postmenopausal women than in premenopausal women. In postmenopausal women, low-grade systemic inflammation is linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome.