Unraveling the complex interplay between obesity and vitamin D metabolism

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 7583 - 17
• Main Authors: Alzohily, Bashar, AlMenhali, Asma, Gariballa, Salah, Munawar, Nayla, Yasin, Javed, Shah, Iltaf
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 30.03.2024; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/1647; 639/638; 692/53; 692/700; Epimers of vitamin D; High-performance liquid chromatography; Humanities and Social Sciences; Liquid chromatography; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Metabolites; multidisciplinary; Nutrient deficiency; Obese subjects vitamin D deficiency; Obesity; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); UHPLC-MS/MS; Vitamin D; Vitamin D blood measurement test; Vitamin D metabolites; Vitamin D2; Vitamin D3; Vitamin deficiency; Vitamin D blood measurement test; Vitamin D; UHPLC-MS/MS; Obese subjects vitamin D deficiency; Epimers of vitamin D; Vitamin D metabolites
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-58154-z

Vitamin D deficiency and obesity are a worldwide health issue. Obesity refers to the accumulation of excessive fats in the body which could lead to the development of diseases. Obese people have low vitamin D levels for several reasons including larger volume of distribution, vitamin D tightly bound in fatty tissues, reduced absorption, and diets with low vitamin D. Accurately measuring vitamin D metabolites is challenging. The Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the analysis of vitamin D metabolites in the serum. Blood samples were collected from 452 subjects which consisted of baseline (vitamin D deficient obese subjects), follow-up (supplemented obese subjects), and healthy volunteers. The vitamin D metabolites were separated adequately by the developed UHPLC-MS/MS method. Moreover, the validation criteria for the method were within an acceptable range. The baseline, follow-up and even healthy volunteers were deficient in 25OHD3 and 25OHD2. The baseline and healthy subjects had comparable concentration of vitamin D2 and D3. However, healthy subjects had a higher concentration of 25OHD and its epimer compared to the baseline subjects. The vitamin D3 was increased significantly in the follow- up subjects; therefore, the 25OHD3 was increased significantly compared to the baseline as well; however, the increase was insufficient to achieve the optimal range. The UHPLC-MS/MS method test was applied successfully on estimation of vitamin D metabolites in subjects. This study indicates the significance of taking into account the metabolic and storage effects when evaluating the vitamin D status in obese subjects.