Influence of vitamin D on the expression of mRNA of cytokines in the mucosa of inflammatory bowel disease patients.

The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of 25(OH)VD serum concentration on the expression of mRNA cytokines (IL-6, IL-8, IL-12, IL-17, IL-23, TNFα, CCR1, CCR2, CCR5, CCR9, CCL5, TLR2, TLR4, TLR5, CD207 ,CD206, FoxP3) in mucosa of IBD patients. The cohort consisted of 86 IBD patients (48 CD and 38 UC) followed at the IBD center of University Hospital Bratislava-Ruzinov. We performed colonoscopy in each patient and took biopsies from mucosa of sigma and terminal ileum. Serum concentration of 25(OH)VD was assessed at the time of colonoscopy. mRNA was extracted from mucosal biopsy samples for each cytokine. Then we analyzed the correlation between VD and the expression of mRNA of cytokines from biopsies samples.  In CD we observed a significant positive correlation of serum concentration 25(OH)VD and the expression mRNA level of IL-6. There was also trend towards significant positive correlation of the expression mRNA of TNFα, IL-10, IL-23, TLR 2 in inflamed mucosa of terminal ileum as well as the expression mRNA of CCR5 and CCR1 in non-inflamed mucosa from terminal ileum. We also found a trend towards positive correlation between 25(OH)VD and the expression mRNA of IL-23, TLR4, CD 207, CCR1, CCR5 and CD 206 in non-inflamed mucosa of sigma in UC.VD significantly correlated with the levels of expression of several inflammatory cytokines including TNFα in colonic mucosa of patients with IBD (Tab. 4, Fig. 3, Ref. 31).