Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to the onset of diabetes. This review summarizes the role of Vitamin D in maintaining the normal release of insulin by the pancreatic beta cells (β-cells). Diabetes is initiated by the onset of insulin resistance. The β-cells can overcome this resistance by releasing more insulin, thus preventing hyperglycaemia. However, as this hyperactivity increases, the β-cells experience excessive Ca2+ and reactive oxygen species (ROS) signalling that results in cell death and the onset of diabetes. Vitamin D deficiency contributes to both the initial insulin resistance and the subsequent onset of diabetes caused by β-cell death. Vitamin D acts to reduce inflammation, which is a major process in inducing insulin resistance. Vitamin D maintains the normal resting levels of both Ca2+ and ROS that are elevated in the β-cells during diabetes. Vitamin D also has a very significant role in maintaining the epigenome. Epigenetic alterations are a feature of diabetes by which many diabetes-related genes are inactivated by hypermethylation. Vitamin D acts to prevent such hypermethylation by increasing the expression of the DNA demethylases that prevent hypermethylation of multiple gene promoter regions of many diabetes-related genes. What is remarkable is just how many cellular processes are maintained by Vitamin D. When Vitamin D is deficient, many of these processes begin to decline and this sets the stage for the onset of diseases such as diabetes.
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April 2017
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Cytoplasmic RNP granules including stress granules and P bodies serve as sites of mRNA processing, contributing to the regulation of RNA metabolism. For more information, please see article by Ford Harrison et al, pages 1433–1454. Image provided by Dr James Shorter.
Review Article|
March 24 2017
Vitamin D deficiency and diabetes
Michael J. Berridge
1The Babraham Institute, Babraham, Cambridge CB22 3AT, U.K.
Correspondence: Michael J. Berridge ([email protected])
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Publisher: Portland Press Ltd
Received:
January 13 2017
Revision Received:
February 10 2017
Accepted:
February 13 2017
Online ISSN: 1470-8728
Print ISSN: 0264-6021
© 2017 The Author(s); published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society
2017
Biochem J (2017) 474 (8): 1321–1332.
Article history
Received:
January 13 2017
Revision Received:
February 10 2017
Accepted:
February 13 2017
Citation
Michael J. Berridge; Vitamin D deficiency and diabetes. Biochem J 15 April 2017; 474 (8): 1321–1332. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/BCJ20170042
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