Sustained suppression of viral replication in improving Vitamin D serum concentrations in patients with chronic hepatitis B

Abstract

Recently, the role of vitamin D in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) has attracted a lot attention. In this study, 128 naïve CHB patients (91 with positive HBeAg, 37 with negative-HBeAg) were enrolled, and 128 volunteers without liver diseases were enrolled as controls. Compared to that of healthy controls, the mean level of 25(OH)D 3 in CHB patients was significantly lower; and the percent of patients with sufficient 25(OH)D 3 ( 20g/mL) was also significantly lower than that of healthy controls. Among those CHB patients, the level of 25(OH)D 3 was negatively correlated with the serum HBV-DNA level. Additionally, the level of 25(OH)D 3 was significantly lower in HBeAg-positive patients than that in HBeAg-negative patients. After the patients went through the long-term antiviral treatments, both the mean level of 25(OH)D 3 and the percent of patients with sufficient 25(OH)D 3 increased significantly. Additionally, patients who were HBeAg free after the treatment also had much higher 25(OH)D 3 level than those with persistent positive HBeAg. All those data suggested that the low vitamin D serum level was dangerous for CHB patients, and the level of 25(OH)D 3 was highly negatively correlated with HBV-DNA levels. Effective antiviral therapy might increase the level of vitamin D in CHB patients.