Medullary thyroid cancer is associated with high serum vitamin D level and polymorphism of vitamin D receptors

• Published in: Physiology international Vol. 107; no. 1; p. 120
• Main Authors: Ramezani, M, Mazani, M, Tabatabaei, M, Rahimian, A, Mosaferi, E, Hedayati, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hungary 01.03.2020
• Subjects: Adult; Carcinoma, Neuroendocrine - genetics; Carcinoma, Neuroendocrine - metabolism; Case-Control Studies; Correlation of Data; Female; Gene Frequency; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Humans; Iran; Male; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Receptors, Calcitriol - genetics; Thyroid Neoplasms - genetics; Thyroid Neoplasms - metabolism; Vitamin D - blood; Iran; polymorphism; vitamin D receptor; medullary thyroid carcinoma; vitamin D
• ISSN: 2498-602X
• DOI: 10.1556/2060.2020.00011

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy. Studies have observed an anti-cancer effect for vitamin D and found that polymorphisms of vitamin D receptors can influence the prevalence of various cancers. The present study investigated the serum level of vitamin D and FokI, BsmI and Tru9I polymorphisms of vitamin D receptors. Forty patients with medullary thyroid cancer and 40 healthy controls were investigated. The genomic DNA of the subjects was extracted using saturated salt/proteinase K and investigated by PCR sequencing. Serum levels of vitamin D were evaluated by ELISA. The results were analyzed in SPSS and GraphPad Prism 5 software. The genotypic and allelic frequencies of FokI and BsmI polymorphisms showed no significant differences between test and control groups. For Tru9I polymorphism, Tt genotype and t allelic frequency in the test group were significantly different from those of the control group. Also, we found Tt genotype and t allelic frequency to be significantly associated with medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) type and the agressiveness of the disease. The average serum vitamin D level was 23.32 ng/mL and 18.95 ng/mL for patients and controls, respectively, and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant. Moreover, we found high serum vitamin D level to be associated with t allelic frequency. Unexpectedly, the mean serum vitamin D level of the test group was significantly higher than that of the control group. Tru9I polymorphism was found to be significantly correlated with the prevalence of medullary thyroid carcinoma.