Vitamin D Status Among Children With Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: A Multicenter Prospective, Non-randomized, Comparative Study

Elena I Kondratyeva; Nuriniso D Odinaeva; Leonid Ya Klimov; Nadeshda S Podchernyaeva; Natalya I Ilenkova; Svetlana V Dolbnya; Elena K Zhekaite; Victoria A Kuryaninova; Yuliya V Kotova; Margarita I Tikhaya; Elena P Shitkovskaya; Liubov V Bychina; Tamara G Drepa; Aisa E Zodbinova; Yuliya L Melyanovskaya; Nika V Petrova; Elena V Loshkova; Sergei I Kutsev

doi:10.3389/fped.2022.915943

Vitamin D Status Among Children With Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: A Multicenter Prospective, Non-randomized, Comparative Study

Front Pediatr. 2022 Jul 26:10:915943. doi: 10.3389/fped.2022.915943. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Elena I Kondratyeva^{1

2}, Nuriniso D Odinaeva², Leonid Ya Klimov³, Nadeshda S Podchernyaeva⁴, Natalya I Ilenkova⁵, Svetlana V Dolbnya³, Elena K Zhekaite^{1

2}, Victoria A Kuryaninova³, Yuliya V Kotova², Margarita I Tikhaya⁴, Elena P Shitkovskaya⁵, Liubov V Bychina⁵, Tamara G Drepa³, Aisa E Zodbinova¹, Yuliya L Melyanovskaya^{1

2}, Nika V Petrova¹, Elena V Loshkova², Sergei I Kutsev¹

Affiliations

¹ Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Moscow, Russia.
² Research Clinical Institute for Childhood of the Moscow Region, Moscow, Russia.
³ Stavropol State Medical University, Stavropol, Russia.
⁴ Sechenov University, Moscow, Russia.
⁵ Krasnoyarsk State Medical University Named After Professor V. F. Voino-Yasenetsky, Krasnoyarsk, Russia.

Abstract

Background: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by destructive and inflammatory damage to the joints. The aim in this study was to compare vitamin D levels between children and adolescents, 1-18 years of age, with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and a health control group of peers. We considered effects of endogenous, exogenous, and genetic factors on measured differences in vitamin D levels among children with JIA.

Methods: Our findings are based on a study sample of 150 patients with various variants of JIA and 277 healthy children. The blood level of vitamin D was assessed by calcidiol level. The following factors were included in our analysis: age and sex; level of insolation in three regions of country (center, south, north); assessment of dietary intake of vitamin D; effect of prophylactic doses of cholecalciferol; a relationship between the TaqI, FokI, and BsmI polymorphisms of the VDR gene and serum 25(OH)D concentration.

Results: We identified a high frequency of low vitamin D among children with JIA, prevalence of 66%, with the medial level of vitamin D being within the range of "insufficient" vitamin D. We also show that the dietary intake of vitamin D by children with JIA is well below expected norms, and that prophylactic doses of vitamin D supplementation (cholecalciferol) at a dose of 500-1,000 IU/day and 1,500-2,000 IU/day do not meet the vitamin D needs of children with JIA. Of importance, we show that vitamin D levels among children with JIA are not affected by clinical therapies to manage the disease nor by the present of VDR genetic variants.

Conclusion: Prophylactic administration of cholecalciferol and season of year play a determining role in the development of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency.

Keywords: VDR gene; genotypes; juvenile idiopathic arthritis; seasons of the year; vitamin D deficiency.

Copyright © 2022 Kondratyeva, Odinaeva, Klimov, Podchernyaeva, Ilenkova, Dolbnya, Zhekaite, Kuryaninova, Kotova, Tikhaya, Shitkovskaya, Bychina, Drepa, Zodbinova, Melyanovskaya, Petrova, Loshkova and Kutsev.