Vitamin D deficiency doesn't speed up T1 diabetes, say scientists

The research built on previous analysis which revealed that children who had not yet developed clinical type 1 (T1) diabetes, but had multiple positive diabetes-specific autoantibodies in their blood, also had lower vitamin D levels than those without these autoantibodies.

The researchers said this link between vitamin D deficiency and the beginnings of T1 diabetes, caused perhaps by an immune system response, meant vitamin D supplementation may be worth considering for prediabetic children.

Measuring deficiency​

The scientists from the Institute of Diabetes Research, Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Diabetes Research Group at the Technische Universität München, sought to examine whether a vitamin D deficiency occurs during an early stage of T1 diabetes and whether this vitamin deficiency influences the progression to T1 diabetes. 

This was defined by the presence of multiple diabetes-specific islet autoantibodies. Autoantibodies are antibodies made by our immune system that attack our own proteins. The diabetes-specific autobodies, islet autoantibodies, are markers that appear when insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas are damaged and are used to estimate an individual’s risk of developing T1 diabetes since they can be detected a long time before beta cells are completely destroyed.

The research, published in Diabetologia, ​measured vitamin D levels in 108 children with multiple islet autoantibodies within 2 years of islet autoantibody seroconversion, 406 children who remained islet autoantibody-negative and 244 patients with newly diagnosed T1 diabetes. They found that vitamin D deficiency was higher in children with prevalent multiple islet autoantibodies than in islet autoantibody-negative children, with this difference being most significant in the summer.

There was a similar rate of development of T1 diabetes 10 years after seroconversion - the development of these detectable antibodies - across children with vitamin D deficiency and those with sufficient levels of the vitamin.

The research suggests then that vitamin D deficiency does not speed up the progression T1 diabetes within children with multiple islet autoantibodies.

Supplementation ​

However, the researchers did still warn it is necessary to be “mindful”​ of vitamin D deficiency within this demographic. Professor Ziegler, one of the researchers behind the study, said: "Vitamin D deficiency precedes the onset of type 1 diabetes. This may be a consequence of an immune response. In the case of prediabetic children, we must therefore be mindful of the risk of vitamin D deficiency and consider recommending vitamin D supplementation at an early stage of type 1 diabetes."​

Source: Diabetologia​

Published online ahead of print, doi 10.1007/s00125-014-3181-4​

“​Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in pre-type 1 diabetes and its association with disease progression​”​

Authors: J.Raab, E. Z. Giannopoulou, S. Schneider, K. Warncke, M. Krasmann, C. Winkler and A.G. Ziegler