Vitamin D deficiency in systemic lupus erythematosus

Osteoporosis and fractures in systemic lupus erythematosus

“…Kamen and colleagues demonstrated that African American patients indeed had significantly lower vitamin D levels than whites (31).…”

Calcium and vitamin D: Skeletal and extraskeletal health

“…Vitamin D and calcium play pivotal roles in the prevention of fractures [25•], and higher vitamin D intake may be associated with a decreased incidence of RA [32]. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is as high as 67% in SLE patients [50]. In these patients, renal disease, photosensitivity, and African American race are strong predictors of low 25(OH)D levels (< 10 ng/mL) [50].…”

Role of vitamin D in immune responses and autoimmune diseases, with emphasis on its role in multiple sclerosis

“…Both laboratory and clinical studies have provided evidence that vitamin D deficiency is an important environmental factor that can increase the prevalence of certain autoimmune diseases, such as MS [55][56][57] , Crohn disease [58] , diabetes mellitus [59,60] , systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) [61,62] , asthma [63] , RA [64] , Sjögren's syndrome, systemic vasculitis and antiphospholipid syndrome [65] . A correlation between reduced intake of vitamin D and prevalence of the diseases can be found, which raises the possibility that serum vitamin D level is important for the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases.…”