Vitamin D and C-Reactive Protein: A Mendelian Randomization Study

Marte C Liefaard, Symen Ligthart, Anna Vitezova, Albert Hofman, André G Uitterlinden, Jessica C Kiefte- de Jong, Oscar H Franco, M Carola Zillikens and Abbas Dehghan

PLOS ONE, 2015, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-12

Abstract: Vitamin D deficiency is widely prevalent and has been associated with many diseases. It has been suggested that vitamin D has effects on the immune system and inhibits inflammation. The aim of our study was to investigate whether vitamin D has an inhibitory effect on systemic inflammation by assessing the association between serum levels of vitamin D and C-reactive protein. We studied the association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and C-reactive protein through linear regression in 9,649 participants of the Rotterdam Study, an observational, prospective population-based cohort study. We used genetic variants related to vitamin D and CRP to compute a genetic risk score and perform bi-directional Mendelian randomization analysis. In linear regression adjusted for age, sex, cohort and other confounders, natural log-transformed CRP decreased with 0.06 (95% CI: -0.08, -0.03) unit per standard deviation increase in 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Bi-directional Mendelian randomization analyses showed no association between the vitamin D genetic risk score and lnCRP (Beta per SD = -0.018; p = 0.082) or the CRP genetic risk score and 25-hydroxyvitamin D (Beta per SD = 0.001; p = 0.998). In conclusion, higher levels of Vitamin D are associated with lower levels of C-reactive protein. In this study we did not find evidence for this to be the result of a causal relationship.

Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0131740

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0131740

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