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# Vitamin D may help stop liver fibrosis
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/vitamin_d_may_help_stop_liver_fibrosis_0425130907/
- Published: 2013-04-25T22:56:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:09:48.000Z
- Description: Salk Institute researchers found calcipotriol, a synthetic vitamin D already approved for psoriasis, stopped the fibrotic response in mouse liver cells, and report high levels of vitamin D receptors in the liver cells that drive fibrosis. Clinical trials are being planned.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Vitamins, Nutrition, #vivvo-import

By David Liu, PHD

Thursday April 25, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- If you suffer live fibrosis, you may want to take vitamin D supplements to maintain a healthy serum level of this sunshine vitamin as a new study in the journal Cells suggests that this hormone (actually not a real vitamin) may help treat the condition that could otherwise potentially lead to a more serious liver disease. 

Researchers at Salk Institute conducted the study and found a synthetic form of vitamin D, a drug called calcipotriol, which has already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat psoriasis, can stop the fibrotic response in mouse liver cells, suggesting that vitamin D may be enlisted to treat liver fibrosis in humans.

Liver fibrosis in the West is mainly caused by chronic hepatitis virus infections such as hepatitis B and hepatitis C, alcohol consumption, and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

"Because there are currently no effective drugs for liver fibrosis, we believe our findings would open a new door for treatment," said senior author Dr. Ronald M. Evans at Salk's Gene Expression Laboratory and in the Institute's new Helmsley Center for Genomic Medicine.

Early studies indicate that vitamin D plays a role in the physiology of the liver. The authors of the current study found high levels of vitamin D receptors in the star-shaped cells in the liver that are easy to be injured, causing liver fibrosis to expand. The high number of vitamin D receptors suggest that vitamin D has a high impact on the liver health.

The researchers said clinical trials are being planned to test the vitamin D analog, which researchers believe is better than the natural vitamin D, for its efficacy in treating liver fibrosis. 

Research is often conducted only on vitamin D analogs, not natural vitamin D for a few reasons, first, natural vitamin D is easy to break down losing its potency, second, high intake of natural vitamin D can lead to hypercalcemia, or high calcium in the blood, frequent urination, muscle weakness and joint pain among other things, and third, synthetic vitamin D is patentable.

Vitamin D has been known to play a role in more than 100 health conditions and diseases including type 2 diabetes, cancer, depression, and heart disease. Regardless of the efficacy of vitamin D in treating liver fibrosis, food consumers should do whatever it takes to make sure they have sufficient serum levels of vitamin D for other health concerns if not for the liver disease.