Vitamin D and Its Role in Ulcerative Colitis

Inflammatory bowel disease includes ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Immunomodulatory effects of vitamin D have been linked with autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease. Procalcitonin as a marker of inflammation, has been proposed for bacterial infections. The aim of our study was to investigate the relationship between serum level of vitamin D and procalcitonin with activity of ulcerative colitis disease. In this cross-sectional study, 96 patients referred to the Gastroenterology Clinic of Baqiyatallah hospital in 2013, were analyzed. Thirty-two patients had active and 32 patients had silent ulcerative colitis or were in the remission phase of the disease. Thirty-two age- and sex-matched healthy controls were studied. The diagnosis of ulcerative colitis was previously established on the basis of clinical symptoms and colonoscopic demonstration. Our sample comprised of 32 patients with active and 32 patients with silent ulcerative colitis, and 32 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. The frequency of vitamin D deficiency was significantly higher in patients with active and silent ulcerative colitis when compared to healthy controls (75% and 65.6% versus 59.4%, respectively; P = 0.04). We found no significant difference in the serum level of procalcitonin among the groups. This study showed that the serum levels of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in patients with active ulcerative colitis were higher than the two other groups. Our results showed that vitamin D deficiency is more common in patients with ulcerative colitis. Laboratory findings confirmed the rise of ESR and CRP