Vitamin D status in patients with bullous pemphigoid

Abstract

Funding sources: this study was supported by a grant from the Medical University of Gdansk (ST‐59). Conflicts of interest: none declared. Madam, Epidemiological studies have suggested that serum levels of the main circulating form of vitamin D, 25‐hydroxyvitamin D3 [25(OH)D], correlate with the disease activity of patients with various chronic inflammatory disorders. Interaction with the immune system is a well‐established, nonclassical effect of vitamin D, and accumulating evidence from experimental studies indicates that vitamin D and its analogues have immunomodulatory and anti‐inflammatory effects.1 Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is the most common autoimmune subepidermal blistering skin disease, and is characterized by autoantibodies to the hemidesmosomal constituents BP180 and BP230. Detection of circulating IgG autoantibodies against the immunodominant region of BP180 (BP180 NC16A) facilitates diagnosis of BP, and monitoring of these autoantibodies is useful in the assessment of the efficacy of treatment, as they correlate with disease activity.2 In a recent report, Marzano et al.3 presented data on vitamin D serum levels in active and untreated patients with BP (n = 15) and pemphigus vulgaris (n = 13). They observed that 25(OH)D levels were reduced approximately twofold in both of these autoimmune bullous diseases compared with controls.