Juvenile Lupus treated by Vitamin D – need more studies to understand why– Jan 2018

Vitamin D and juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus: Lights, shadows and still unresolved issues.

Autoimmun Rev. 2018 Jan 15. pii: S1568-9972(18)30011-9. doi: 10.1016/j.autrev.2018.01.004. [Epub ahead of print] Stagi S1, Rigante D2.

• 1 Health Science Department, University of Florence, Anna Meyer Children's University Hospital, Florence, Italy. stefano.stagi at yahoo.it.
• 2 Institute of Pediatrics, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario "A. Gemelli", Università Cattolica Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and juvenile SLE (jSLE) are autoimmune disorders naturally associated with several genetic, environmental, hormonal, and immunological contributing factors.

It has been assumed that vitamin D deficiency may have a role in the immune activation of patients with SLE and play an active part in many comorbidities and even complications. A host of clinical studies suggested that vitamin D exerts inhibitory effects on many immunological abnormalities associated with SLE, also in children and adolescents, while different reports have hypothesized that vitamin D may be associated with accelerated cardiovascular disease in SLE.

This review updates and summarizes the information related to the immunoregulatory effects of vitamin D and its importance in jSLE, discusses the innumerable correlations between vitamin D and disease activity, including clinical expression and gene polymorphisms of vitamin D receptor as well as the recommendations for vitamin D supplementation in these patients.

Despite the excitement raised by many data obtained about vitamin D and its influence on several aspects of the disease, further well-designed perspective trials are required to define the exact role that vitamin D may have in the management of both SLE and jSLE.

PMID: 29353100 DOI: 10.1016/j.autrev.2018.01.004