Mandal D, Reja AHH, Biswas N, Bhattacharyya P, Patra PK, Bhattacharya B. Vitamin D receptor expression levels determine the severity and complexity of disease progression among leprosy reaction patients.
New Microbes New Infect 2015;
6:35-9. [PMID:
26106480 PMCID:
PMC4475695 DOI:
10.1016/j.nmni.2015.04.001]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2015] [Accepted: 04/07/2015] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
We studied the roles of vitamin D and its receptor, VDR, in the progression of leprosy. The majority of individuals with leprosy from Kolkata, India, with a type 1 or type 2 reaction have low levels of vitamin D3 in serum samples. Interestingly, individuals with a type 2 reaction associated with neuritis/erythema nodosum leprosum had very low VDR mRNA expression levels, ranging from 5% to 10%, compared to that of healthy control subjects; these patients also had a high bacilli index, ranging from 3+ to 5+. This is the first report to indicate that VDR expression levels may determine the complexity and severity of the progression of leprosy.
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