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  • Original Article
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Sunlight is an important determinant of vitamin D serum concentrations in cystic fibrosis

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 65, pages 574–579 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

The increase of bone disease in adult cystic fibrosis (CF) patients is partly attributed to inadequate serum concentrations of 25-OH cholecalciferol (25 (OH) D) blamed on fat malabsorption. Based on physiological, clinical and biochemical observations this pathogenesis is debatable. The objective was to ascertain the relative importance of different 25 (OH) D sources.

Subjects/Methods:

Over 4 consecutive years, 474 annual 25 (OH) D serum concentrations from 141 CF patients of all ages were compared with values of healthy peers and weighed against annual ultraviolet B (UVB) exposure.

Results:

Ranked per month, 25 (OH) D concentrations depicted a curve strikingly parallel to the amount of UVB exposure in the preceding months. A significant difference exists between 25 (OH) D concentrations in the ‘Months with high UVB exposure’ (May–October) and the ‘Months with low UVB exposure’ (November–April) but not with healthy controls in the same period.

Conclusions:

25 (OH) D concentrations clearly respond to the amount of sunshine in preceding months. They are not clearly influenced by daily oral supplements of 800 IU of cholecalciferol. Sun exposure should be encouraged, and the recommended dosage of oral supplements increased.

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Acknowledgements

The authors’ contributions are as follows: ER, SV participated in all stages of the research project. ER, CW and SV conceived the study and the collection of data. JMK and JDS provided data on control patients. ER, CW and SV carried out the data analysis, and ER and SV wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. We would like to thank Nele Iserentant and Santiago Grau for linguistic help in the drawing of the manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. E Robberecht and S Vandewalle: These authors contribute equally to the work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CF Centre Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium

    E Robberecht, S Vandewalle & C Wehlou

  2. Department of Endocrinology Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium

    J-M Kaufman & J De Schepper

  3. CF Centre Brussels University Hospital, Brussels, Belgium

    J De Schepper

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  1. E Robberecht
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  2. S Vandewalle
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  3. C Wehlou
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  4. J-M Kaufman
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  5. J De Schepper
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Correspondence to E Robberecht.

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Robberecht, E., Vandewalle, S., Wehlou, C. et al. Sunlight is an important determinant of vitamin D serum concentrations in cystic fibrosis. Eur J Clin Nutr 65, 574–579 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2010.280

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2010.280

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