Association of self-reported symptoms with serum levels of vitamin D and multivariate cytokine profile in healthy women

• Main Authors: Azizieh FY, Alyahya KO, Dingle K
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dove Medical Press 2017-03-01
• Series: Journal of Inflammation Research
• Subjects: Vitamin D; Cytokines; Adult women; Self-reported symptoms; Inflammation
• Online Access: https://www.dovepress.com/association-of-self-reported-symptoms-with-serum-levels-of-vitamin-d-a-peer-reviewed-article-JIR

Fawaz Y Azizieh,1 Khulood O Alyahya,2 Kamaludin Dingle1 1Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Gulf University for Science and Technology, International Centre for Applied Mathematics and Computational Bioengineering, West Mishref, Kuwait; 2Science Department, College of Basic Education, Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, Kuwait City, Kuwait Background: Although a large number of studies have investigated possible relationships among serum levels of vitamin D or cytokines with disease progress and prognosis, similar studies on self-reported symptoms are still controversial. The overall objective of this study was to look into the association between serum levels of vitamin D or cytokines with self-reported symptoms related to musculoskeletal pain, sleep disorders, and premenstrual syndrome (PMS) in healthy adult women.Subjects and methods: Venous blood samples were collected from 117 healthy adult women, and serum levels of vitamin D, pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-17, IFN-γ, and TNF-α) and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-4, IL-10, and IL-13) were measured. Groups were tested for differences in single parameters, pro-:anti-inflammatory cytokine ratios, and differences in multivariate patterns.Results: There were no significant associations between serum levels of vitamin D and any of the self-reported symptoms studied. However, serum levels of certain pro-inflammatory cytokines were significantly higher in subjects with musculoskeletal pain (IL-8, P=0.008), sleep disorders (IFN-γ, P=0.02), and PMS (IL-8 and TNF-α, P=0.009 and 0.002, respectively) compared to subjects who reported no symptoms. The pro-:anti-inflammatory cytokine ratios showed pro-inflammatory cytokine dominance in subjects with self-reported symptoms, particularly in the groups with deficient levels of vitamin D. However, the multivariate cytokine-pattern analysis was significantly different between PMS groups only.Conclusion: These data point to a possible role of pro-inflammatory cytokines as a contributing factor in self-reported symptoms related to musculoskeletal pain, sleep disorders, and PMS. Keywords: vitamin D, cytokines, adult women, self-reported symptoms, inflammation