Background/Purpose:

To determinate the association between vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene alleles and  bone mineral density (BMD), comparing a group of healthy pre-menopausal white women to a group of pre-menopausal white women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), treated with corticosteroid (CE). In the RA group, analysis of the correlation between BMD and VDR genotypes, RA activity, severity, and duration of CE treatment was also performed.

Methods: forty healthy volunteers and 50 patients with RA were recruited. The VDR genotypes were assessed by PCR amplification followed by Bsml digestion on DNA isolated from blood leukocytes.

Results:  

There was no association between the genotypes of VDR and BMD in both groups, nor any association of genotype BB with subgroups of RA and osteopenia in femoral neck or lumbar spine. The RA group had an average BMD lower than the control group (p=0.004 in L2-L4 and p=0.007 in femoral neck). The patients with RA and femoral neck osteopenia had a higher rate of joint destruction (p=0.03). The correlation analysis confirmed the influence of the joint destruction rate in BMD of femoral neck and showed a negative correlation between duration of CE treatment and BMD in L2-L4 (p=0.003).

Conclusion results indicate that in this populations of RA women, VDR gene polymorphism should not predict the BMD. This study on RA suggests that the severity of joint destruction is associated with lower femoral neck BMD, and that the duration of CE treatment is correlated with lumbar spine BMD.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/analysis-of-vitamin-d-receptor-gene-polymorphisms-and-bone-mineral-density-in-a-population-of-women-with-rheumatoid-arthritis-in-use-of-steroid/