A randomized controlled trial on the effect of vitamin D3 on inflammation and cathelicidin gene expression in ulcerative colitis patients

What Was Tested

Researchers studied LL-37 (cathelicidin) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

To characterize the effects of Vitamin D on cathelicidin (hCAP/LL37) gene expression, ESR, and serum hs-CRP levels.

Why It Was Studied

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an intestinal chronic inflammatory condition and includes Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC).

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got LL-37 (cathelicidin) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on LL-37 (cathelicidin), so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some participants received a placebo instead of LL-37 (cathelicidin), giving a reference point.

Before and 90 days after intervention, serum levels of 25 (OH)-Vitamin D3, PTH, Calcium, ESR, and hs-CRP were measured.

Cathelicidin gene expression was also quantified using qRT-PCR.

What Was Measured

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an intestinal chronic inflammatory condition and includes Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC).

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides, Blood Sedimentation, C-Reactive Protein, Cathelicidins, Cholecalciferol, Colitis, Ulcerative and Dietary Supplements.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of LL-37 (cathelicidin).

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2016 (Saudi journal of gastroenterology : official journal of the Saudi Gastroenterology Association), a journal based in India.

More context: the LL-37 (cathelicidin) compound page, all human trials.