Pilot Trial of Vitamin D3 and Calcifediol in Healthy Vitamin D Deficient Adults: Does It Change the Fecal Microbiome?

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in this randomized controlled trial publication.

To determine whether correcting vitamin D deficiency with cholecalciferol (vitamin D3, D3) or calcifediol (25-hydroxyvitamin D3, 25(OH)D3) changes gut microbiome composition.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 18 adults taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as teenagers, young adults and adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and pilot study.

The adults were allocated by chance, so the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group and the comparison group should start out alike.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study would be practical.

Changes in serum 25(OH)D, 1,25-diydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D), and 24,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (24,25(OH)2D) were assessed.

The researchers characterized composition of the fecal microbiota using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and examined changes in α-diversity (Chao 1, Faith's Phylogenetic Diversity, Shannon Index), β-diversity (DEICODE), and genus-level abundances (DESeq2).

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Biomarkers, Calcifediol, Cholecalciferol, Dietary Supplements, Feces, Gastrointestinal Microbiome and Pilot Projects.

The authors tagged it with the keywords gut microbiome.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and pilot study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 18 adults.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 7 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2021 (The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.