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Title : STUDY OF THE CORRELATION BETWEEN VITAMIN D STATUS AND RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS IN THE MOROCCAN POPULATION
Abstract :The results of epidemiological studies suggest the immunomodulatory effect of vitamin D in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It would seem that vitamin D deficiency is frequent in RA and that there is an inverse relationship between the occurrence and activity of RA and the serum vitamin D level. It is in this context that our prospective study on the Moroccan population allows to have a global knowledge on the association between vitamin D and RA. This is a descriptive study of vitamin D status in patients with RA in whom blood samples were taken by serum 25(OH)D determination. The data collected were anonymized and entered into SPSS software. X2 and ANOVA tests were used to investigate the existence of correlations between vitamin D status and age, gender, socio-educational level, place of residence, RA activity and pain intensity. 122 patients with RA were included in this study with a female predominance of 67.2%, mainly between 36 and 55 years of age (42.62%), 52% of whom had secondary education, 85% of whom lived in urban areas and more than 70% of whom were vitamin D deficient. The relationship between low serum vitamin D and RA exists. Our study concluded that there is an association between hypovitaminosis D and RA; however, further randomized studies are needed and in the meantime, clinicians could propose vitamin D supplementation in the therapeutic arsenal of patients with RA.
Title : Association Between Deficient Levels of Vitamin D and Increased Risk of PCa among Moroccan population: A Case-Control Study
Abstract :It has been shown that vitamin D by activating the VDR can regulate the expression of genes involved in the regulation of growth, cell differentiation and apoptosis. In addition, many studies suggest that vitamin D may have anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects that may play a role in the prevention of prostate cancer (PCa), although some previous studies have suggested an inverse relationship between vitamin D and the risk of PCa. This case-control study aimed to investigate the association between deficient and insufficient levels of 25-(OH) vitamin D3 and the risk of PCa. A total of 43 cases diagnosed with PCa and 60 controls were included in the study. Blood samples were taken to measure 25-(OH) vitamin D3 and PSA levels. Vitamin D deficient and insufficient levels were defined based on established thresholds. The chi-square test was used for qualitative variables to assess the differences in vitamin D levels between the two groups, the cases and controls, and for quantitative variables, the student t-test was used. The results of the study revealed a strong inverse association (p= 0.008) between deficient levels of 25-(OH) vitamin D3 and an increased risk of PCa. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was 16% in the overall population studied and 20.9% in cases diagnosed with PCa. Based on our results, cases with vitamin D deficiency had a significantly higher risk of developing PCa compared to those with sufficient levels. However, further research studies are needed to elucidate the underlying mechanisms and explore the potential of vitamin D supplementation as a preventive strategy for PCa.
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