Vitamin D receptor and CD86 expression in the skin of vitamin D-deficient swine

Abstract

The immunomodulatory role of vitamin D in many diseases is well established. However, relationship between vitamin D status and skin cancers is unclear. In this study, we examined the effect of vitamin D deficiency and sufficiency on VDR, NF-κB, and CD86 in the epidermis of Yucatan microswine tragi. All of these proteins have known roles in the pathogenesis of cutaneous malignancies such as melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer. There was weaker and less discrete nuclear staining for VDR and weaker CD86 immunoreactivity with patchy membranous expression in the epidermis of vitamin D-deficient compared to vitamin D-sufficient swine. There was no difference in the immunostaining for NF-κB. Since VDR and CD86 expression are decreased in the setting of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers, our findings suggest a potential role of vitamin D-deficiency in the progression of skin malignancies.

Influence of Serum Vitamin D Level in the Response of Actinic Keratosis to Photodynamic Therapy with Methylaminolevulinate

“…The relationship between 25(OH)D serum levels and VDR expression in keratinocytes has not been studied in humans. In swine models fed with a VD-deficient diet, VD insufficiency status resulted in a diffuse presence of VDR in the keratinocytic cytoplasm, whilst supplementation with VD up to serum levels of 25(OH)D sufficiency induced a preferentially nuclear location of the VDR [19]. Moreover, unpublished data of our group in several in vitro experiences with skin and vulvar squamous cell carcinoma cell lines (SCC-13 and A-431) reveal that these tumor cells exhibit a diffuse expression of VDR in the cytoplasm that changes dramatically to a predominantly nuclear expression upon the addition of calcitriol to the cell cultures.…”