Monday Oct 19, 2014 (foodconsumer.org) -- Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may be better off taking vitamin D supplements as a new study conducted in China found a diet full of the sunshine vitamin may have a prophylactic effect on intestinal fibrosis in mice with vitamin D deficiency and chronic colitis.

Patients IBD who also suffer vitamin D deficiency may develop a main complication of IBD called intestinal fibrosis.  The current study found evidence suggesting that oral vitamin D supplementation may help reduce the risk of intestinal fibrosis.

In the study, two groups of vitamin D deficient mice received either a vitamin D deficient diet or vitamin D sufficient diet from weaning at week 4 and intestinal fibrosis was induced by six-weekly exposure to 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid, starting from week 8. At week 14, certain biochemical parameters or biomarkers were measured to examine the effect of vitamin D sufficiency on intestinal fibrosis.

Vitamin D supplementation significantly reduced the histological scoring and evidence was found to indicate that vitamin D had a prophylactic effect on intestinal fibrosis in vitamin D-deficient mice with chronic colitis.

Q. Tao and colleagues at Southeast University Medical School in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China conducted the study.  (david Liu)

Tao Q, Wang B, Zheng Y, Jiang X, Pan Z, Ren J. Vitamin D Prevents the Intestinal Fibrosis Via Induction of Vitamin D Receptor and Inhibition of Transforming Growth Factor-Beta1/Smad3 Pathway. Dig Dis Sci. 2014 Oct 19.