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Short-term UVB irradiation significantly increases vitamin D serum concentration in obese patients: a clinical pilot study

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Abstract

Purpose

Deficiency of vitamin D is very common in obese people and treatment by oral supplementation is not effective in all patients. This exploratory pilot study investigated the influence of different doses of short-term ultraviolet B irradiation on serum 25-hydroxyvitamin-D3 (25D) and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin-D3 (1,25D) levels in obese compared to normal weight subjects and obese controls.

Methods

Participants with skin types II and III (Fitzpatrick skin classification) were assigned to six groups including four intervention groups receiving irradiation (three groups of obese and one group of normal weight subjects) and two control groups without treatment (obese and normal weight). Intervention groups received three sessions of whole body UVB irradiation of three different doses (cumulative doses over three sessions: 0.28, 0.70, 1.75 minimal erythema dose) within 1 week of intervention. Serum 25D and 1,25D were measured at baseline and after irradiation. Outcome differences between groups were analyzed using a linear model.

Results

Serum 25D levels increased significantly in obese (+23.6 and +26.7%, respectively, p = 0.01) and normal weight (+15.6%, p = 0.02) intervention groups who received medium and high doses of ultraviolet B irradiation compared to control groups (+3.5 and −4.0%, respectively, p = 1.0). The increase in obese patients was 51.4% greater compared to normal weight controls irradiated with equal ultraviolet B doses. Low-level ultraviolet irradiation did not result in a significant change in serum 25D (+7.0%, p = 0.61). We did not detect any significant differences of 1,25D between groups (p = 0.25).

Conclusions

The current study indicates that short-term ultraviolet B irradiation increases 25D levels in obese patients.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the staff of the medical photobiology group and the psychosomatic inpatient clinic at the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine at Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, as well as all participants of this study. Charité University Funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Internal Medicine and Dermatology, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, Berlin, 10117, Germany

    Alexander Obbarius, Heike Berger, Andreas Stengel, Felix Fischer, Tobias Hofmann & Matthias Rose

  2. Sleep Medicine Center, Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, Berlin, 10117, Germany

    Carmen Garcia

  3. Medical Photobiology Group, Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, Berlin, 10117, Germany

    Ralf Uebelhack

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  1. Alexander Obbarius
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Correspondence to Alexander Obbarius.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the Helsinki declaration of 1975 and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Obbarius, A., Berger, H., Stengel, A. et al. Short-term UVB irradiation significantly increases vitamin D serum concentration in obese patients: a clinical pilot study. Endocrine 56, 186–195 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-017-1252-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-017-1252-2

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