Objective: To examine the vitamin D status, SNP of the vitamin D receptor gene (VDR) and the effects of vitamin D supplementation on parathyroid hormone and insulin secretion in adult males with obesity or normal weight in a subtropical Chinese city. Design: An intervention trial. Setting: Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, China. Subjects: From a cross-sectional survey conducted from June to July, eighty-two normal-weight and ninety-nine obese males (18-69 years) were screened to analyse their vitamin D status and for five SNP of VDR. From these individuals, in the same season of a different year, obese and normal-weight male volunteers (twenty-one per group) were included for an intervention trial with oral vitamin D supplementation at 1250 µg/week for 8 weeks.Results: For the survey, there was no significant difference (P > 0·05) in baseline circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations or in the percentages of participants in different categories of vitamin D status between the two groups. The VDR SNP, rs3782905, was significantly associated with obesity (P = 0·043), but none of the examined SNP were correlated with serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D when adjusted for age, BMI and study group. After vitamin D supplementation, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration, hypersecretions of parathyroid hormone and insulin, and insulin resistance in the obese were changed beneficially (P < 0·05); however, the increase in serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D was less than that of the normal-weight men. Conclusions: For obese and normal-weight men of subtropical China, the summer baseline vitamin D status was similar. However, oral vitamin D supplementation revealed a decreased bioavailability of vitamin D in obese men and ameliorated their hypersecretion of parathyroid hormone and insulin resistance.
KeywordsVitamin D Obesity Chinese male Parathyroid hormone Insulin resistanceIn China, approximately 12 % of adult males are considered to be obese (1,2) . Since vitamin D nutritional status may be important in regulating obesity (3)(4)(5)(6) , interest was aroused to study Chinese obese males in this regard. Circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D; calcidiol), a metabolite of vitamin D having a half-life of 2-3 weeks, is recommended as a reliable marker of vitamin D nutritional status (7)(8)(9)(10) . The US Institute of Medicine (11) reports that a circulating 25(OH)D concentration equal to 50 nmol/l (20 ng/ml) meets the vitamin D requirements of 97·5 % of the population, and this threshold is widely accepted for hypovitaminosis D (10,(12)(13)(14) . Not satisfied with that basic requirement, many researchers claim that improvement of circulating 25(OH)D concentrations to much higher than 50 nmol/l can prevent a broad range of diseases (4,(15)(16)(17) .In addition, 25(OH)D ≤25 nmol/l (10 ng/ml) is considered to be 'severe vitamin D deficiency', 75-250 nmol/l (30-100 ng/ml) a 'sufficient or optimal' level and 50-75 nmol/l (21-29 ng/ml) an 'insufficient' level (12,13,18) , although these reference ranges are not defined by the Inst...