Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory and autoimmune disease. Variety of different genetics and environmental factors are involved in MS pathology. The epidemiological studies demonstrated that vitamin D has immune and immunomodulating effects on MS disease. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the effect of vitamin D treatment on the expression of interleukin-10 (IL-10) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) genes in MS patients. We found that, the expression level of IL-10 gene in treated patients was up-regulated 3.84 times more than before treatment, but the expression level of TGF-β1 was not affected by vitamin D treatment. Also, a significant relationship was observed between vitamin D level and EDSS in MS patients. Our results indicated that the increased level of serum vitamin D and IL-10 gene expression may be associated with the reduction of EDSS scores in MS patients.
Keywords: EDSS; IL-10; Multiple sclerosis; TGF-β1; Vitamin D; qRT-PCR.
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