Abstract
BackgroundLow concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D during pregnancy may be associated with offspring autoimmune disorders. Little is known about environmental triggers except gluten for celiac disease, a common immune-mediated disorder where seasonality of birth has been reported as a risk factor. We therefore aimed to test whether low maternal and neonatal 25-hydroxyvitamin D predicted higher risk of childhood celiac disease.Methods and FindingsIn this Norwegian nationwide pregnancy cohort (n = 113,053) and nested case-control study, we analyzed 25-hydroxyvitamin D in maternal blood from mid-pregnancy, postpartum and cord plasma of 416 children who developed celiac disease and 570 randomly selected controls. Mothers and children were genotyped for established celiac disease and vitamin D metabolism variants. We used mixed linear regression models and logistic regression to study associations.There was no significant difference in average 25-hydroxyvitamin D between cases and controls (63.1 and 62.1 nmol/l, respectively, p = 0.28), and no significant linear trend (adjusted odds ratio per 10 nM increase 1.05, 95% CI: 0.93–1.17). Results were similar when analyzing the mid-pregnancy, postpartum or cord plasma separately. Genetic variants for vitamin D deficiency were not associated with celiac disease (odds ratio per risk allele of the child, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.90 to 1.10, odds ratio per risk allele of the mother 0.94; 95% CI 0.85 to 1.04). Vitamin D intake in pregnancy or by the child in early life did not predict later celiac disease. Adjustment for established genetic risk markers for celiac disease gave similar results.ConclusionsWe found no support for the hypothesis that maternal or neonatal vitamin D status is related to the risk of childhood celiac disease.
Highlights
Celiac disease is an increasingly common autoimmune disorder, occurring in genetically predisposed individuals after ingestion of gluten from wheat and other cereals
We found no support for the hypothesis that maternal or neonatal vitamin D status is related to the risk of childhood celiac disease
In the second stage we used this average as the predictor in a logistic regression analysis with celiac disease in the child as the outcome, and computed 95% confidence intervals (CI) accounting for the total variance at both stages using bootstrapping with 2000 repetitions
Summary
Celiac disease is an increasingly common autoimmune disorder, occurring in genetically predisposed individuals after ingestion of gluten from wheat and other cereals. Over the last decades there has been an increased understanding that vitamin D plays an important role as a signaling component in the immune system.[8] Macrophages and monocytes express the enzymes to convert 25-hydroxyvitamin D to its active form. Low concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D during pregnancy may be associated with offspring autoimmune disorders. Little is known about environmental triggers except gluten for celiac disease, a common immune-mediated disorder where seasonality of birth has been reported as a risk factor. We aimed to test whether low maternal and neonatal 25hydroxyvitamin D predicted higher risk of childhood celiac disease
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