The Role of Vitamin D in the Transcriptional Program of Human Pregnancy
Amal Al-Garawi, Vincent J. Carey, Divya Chhabra, Hooman Mirzakhani, Jarrett Morrow, Jessica Lasky-Su, Weiliang Qiu, Nancy Laranjo, Augusto A. Litonjua, Scott T. Weiss scott.weiss at channing.harvard.edu
Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
Unfortunately the study does not seem to distinguish # of changes in the 400 IU group vs the 4,400 IU group
- Gene differences can result in 14 ng difference in vitamin D levels– Feb 2014
- 291 genes improved expression by 2000 IU of vitamin D – RCT March 2013
- Bio-available Vitamin D is reduced by half during pregnancy – Jan 2017
- 54 genes significantly affected by Vitamin D (50,000 IU weekly for 12 weeks) – May 2021
Items in both categories Pregnancy and Genes are listed here:
- Gestational Diabetes and Vitamin D - many studies
- Hypertension during pregnancy: low Vitamin D, poor Vit. D genes – June 2022
- Spontaneous Miscarriage strongly associated with 2 vitamin D genes – March 2020
- 430 genes changed when 3,800 IU Vitamin D added in late second trimester – RCT May 2018
- Gestational Diabetes Mellitus associated with 4 Vitamin D genes – Oct 2015
- Pregnant women need at least 40 ng of Vitamin D (Wagner, genes) – Oct 2017
- Vitamin D genes and pregnancy – 7th study - Sept 2017
- Vitamin D during pregnancy – dramatic changes in both metabolism and genes – Feb 2017
- 5839 genes changed during pregnancy (many genes were related to Vitamin D) – Oct 2016
- Preeclampsia 3.5 times more likely if low vitamin D (affects 348 Vit. D genes) – RCT Nov 2016
- Low vitamin D in pregnancy – epigenetic pancreas problems in offspring (mice) – May 2016
- Low vitamin D in mother rat altered 426 genes in newborn rat – Aug 2013
Items in both categories Pregnancy and Vitamin D Receptor gene are listed here:
- Gestational Diabetes and Vitamin D - many studies
- Hypertension during pregnancy: low Vitamin D, poor Vit. D genes – June 2022
- Preeclampsia reduced by Vitamin D - many studies
- After lactation Vitamin D levels are low, increased risk of Breast Cancer, vitamin D should decrease risk – Aug 2021
- Gestational Diabetes – increased risk if poor Vitamin D Receptor – 2 Meta-Analyses 2021
- Higher risk of Recurrent Pregnancy Loss if poor Vitamin D Receptor – Feb 2021
- Spontaneous Miscarriage strongly associated with 2 vitamin D genes – March 2020
- Preterm birth associated with many genes, including the Vitamin D Receptor again – Jan 2020
- Preterm birth 8X more likely if poor Vitamin D Receptor – Dec 2019
- Preterm birth 9 X more likely if fetus had a poor Vitamin D Receptor and previous miscarriage – Aug 2017
- Recurrent miscarriage occurs 2.2 more often if poor Vitamin D Receptor – Aug 2019
- Gestational Diabetes 2.4X more likely if poor Vitamin D Receptor (region in China) – June 2019
- Gestational Diabetes 3 X more likely if poor Vitamin D receptor (Turkey) – May 2019
- Preeclampsia 2X more likely if poor Vitamin D Receptor – April 2019
- Preterm births 12 X more likely if poor Vitamin D Receptor (white infants in Italy) – meta-analysis Aug 2018
- UV at time of conception associated with Vitamin D Receptor activation 65 years later – Sept 2017
- A good Vitamin D Receptor (or perhaps more vitamin D) protects against lead during pregnancy
- Vitamin D Receptor is associated with preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and preterm birth – Nov 2017
- Gestational Diabetes Mellitus associated with 4 Vitamin D genes – Oct 2015
- Frequent miscarriage associated with both lower vitamin D and poor Vitamin D receptor – Sept 2017
- Vitamin D genes and pregnancy – 7th study - Sept 2017
- Preterm births strongly related to Vitamin D, Vitamin D Receptor, Iodine, Omega-3, etc
- Recurrent miscarriage associated with half as much vitamin D getting to fetus – Sept 2016
- Progesterone activates vitamin D receptor - many studies
Genetics category listing contains the following
see also
- Vitamin D Receptor has
530 items - Vitamin D Binding Protein = GC has
178 items - CYP27B1 has
63 items - CYP24A1 in title of 34+ items
- CYP2R1 25+ items
- Calcidiol has
48 items - Calcitriol has
62 items - Topical Vitamin D
- Nanoemulsion Vitamin D may be a substantially better form
- 1289 genes changed with higher doses of Vitamin D - RCT Dec 2019
- CYP3A4 (7 as of Dec 2022)
- Getting Vitamin D into your body
Vitamin D blood test misses a lot
- Vitamin D from coming from tissues (vs blood) was speculated to be 50% in 2014, and by 2017 was speculated to be 90%
- Note: Good blood test results (> 40 ng) does not mean that a good amount of Vitamin D actually gets to cells
- A Vitamin D test in cells rather than blood was feasible (2017 personal communication) Commercially available 2019
- However, test results would vary in each tissue due to multiple genes
- Good clues that Vitamin D is being restricted from getting to the cells
1) A vitamin D-related health problem runs in the family
especially if it is one of 51+ diseases related to Vitamin D Receptor
2) Slightly increasing Vitamin D shows benefits (even if conventional Vitamin D test shows an increase)
3) DNA and VDR tests - 120 to 200 dollars $100 to $250
4) PTH bottoms out ( shows that parathyroid cells are getting Vitamin d)
Genes are good, have enough Magnesium, etc.
5) Back Pain
probably want at least 2 clues before taking adding vitamin D, Omega-3, Magnesium, Resveratrol, etc- The founder of VitaminDWiki took action with clues #3&5
 Download the PDF from VitaminDWikiBackground: Patterns of gene expression of human pregnancy are poorly understood. In a trial of vitamin D supplementation in pregnant women, peripheral blood transcriptomes were measured longitudinally on 30 women and used to characterize gene co-expression networks.
Objective: Studies suggest that increased maternal Vitamin D levels may reduce the risk of asthma in early life, yet the underlying mechanisms have not been examined. In this study, we used a network-based approach to examine changes in gene expression profiles during the course of normal pregnancy and evaluated their association with maternal Vitamin D levels.
Design: The VDAART (Vitamin D Antenatal Asthma deduction Trial) study is a randomized clinical trial of vitamin D supplementation in pregnancy for reduction of pediatric asthma risk. The trial enrolled 881 women at 10-18 weeks of gestation. Longitudinal gene expression measures were obtained on thirty pregnant women, using RNA isolated from peripheral blood samples obtained in the first and third trimesters. Differentially expressed genes were identified using significance of analysis of microarrays (SAM), and clustered using a weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). Gene-set enrichment was performed to identify major biological pathways.
Results: Comparison of transcriptional profiles between first and third trimesters of pregnancy identified 5839 significantly differentially expressed genes (FDR<0.05). Weighted gene coexpression network analysis clustered these transcripts into 14 co-expression modules of which two showed significant correlation with maternal vitamin D levels. Pathway analysis of these two modules revealed genes enriched in immune defense pathways and extracellular matrix reorganization as well as genes enriched in notch signaling and transcription factor networks.
Conclusion: Our data show that gene expression profiles of healthy pregnant women change during the course of pregnancy and suggest that maternal Vitamin D levels influence transcriptional profiles. These alterations of the maternal transcriptome may contribute to fetal immune imprinting and reduce allergic sensitization in early life.Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov NCT00920621
Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. The data discussed in this publication have been deposited in NCBI's Gene Expression Omnibus and are accessible through GEO Series accession number GSE86200, available at: http:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?token=ixeziewgpzgthkj&acc=GSE86200.
5839 genes changed during pregnancy (many genes were related to Vitamin D) – Oct 20165404 visitors, last modified 10 May, 2021, This page is in the following categories (# of items in each category) - Vitamin D Binding Protein = GC has