Vitamin D gene expression varies with Epileptic age

Expression Analysis of Vitamin D Signaling Pathway Genes in Epileptic Patients.

J Mol Neurosci. 2018 Mar 16. doi: 10.1007/s12031-018-1059-5. [Epub ahead of print]

Mazdeh M1,2, Ghafouri-Fard S3, Hatami M3, Eftekharian MM1, Ganji M3, Sayad A3, Arsang-Jang S4, Taheri M5,6, Omrani MD7,8.

Main Epileptic page on VitaminDWiki items in CYP27B1 category --- Note: The study on this page refers to: CYP27B1,   CYP24A1, and   VDR The effects of those genes are not detected by a blood test Those genes are included in the following chart click on image for details

📄 Download the PDF from Sci-Hub via VitaminDWiki

Vitamin D deficiency has been detected in epileptic patients. Vitamin D participates in neuroprotection, brain cell proliferation, and differentiation. Consequently, vitamin D supplementation has been suggested as an alternative treatment in epileptic patients. We aimed at assessment of vitamin D signaling pathway in epileptic patients.

In the present study, we evaluated vitamin D serum concentration as well as expression of *vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene and

• genes encoding for

  • vitamin D activating enzyme 1-alpha-hydroxylase (CYP27B1) and

  • deactivating enzyme 24-hyroxylase (CYP24A1)

in epileptic patients compared with healthy individuals.

We found significant lower levels of vitamin D in epileptic patients compared with healthy subjects. Expression analyses showed significant downregulation of VDR expression in peripheral blood of epileptic patients compared with healthy subjects (relative expression (REx) = 0.16, P < 0.001).

However, there was no significant difference in CYP24A1 expression between epileptic patients and normal subjects.

CYP27B1 expression analysis showed significant upregulation in male patients aged between 30 and 40 (REx = 5.43, P = 0.013). After using two-way ANCOVA for adjusting the effects of sex and age, there was a statistically significant difference in the VDR expression values between patient and control groups (P < 0.001).

Spearman's correlation analysis showed no significant correlation between genes expression levels and patients' age or vitamin D serum concentrations.

However, we found significant correlations between VDR expression levels and CYP24A1/ CYP27B1 expression levels in epileptic patients (r = 0.435 and P < 0.001; r = 0.26 and P = 0.02 respectively).

There was also a significant correlation between the expression levels of CYP24A1 and CYP27B1 (r = 0.349 and P = 0.001). Our study shows a possible role for VDR in the pathogenesis of epilepsy.

PMID: 29549592 DOI: 10.1007/s12031-018-1059-5