Vitamin D and its analogue in treating Periodontal diseases

Vitamin D has the ability to eliminate microbes through diverse mechanisms and biphasic effect on gingival epithelial growth. In concentrations less than equal to10 nM cell proliferation occurs and in 100 nM suppressed cell growth, whereas Vitamin D analogue shows anti proliferation. Vitamin D and its analogue are involved in wound healing, by activation of vitamin D receptors and increased production of human cathelicidin LL-37. Increase in LL-37 results antimicrobial effect and reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines. These characteristics of Vitamin D proved to be beneficial in treating periodontal diseases.

A variety of pathways for the “perioprotective” function of vitamin D have been elucidated. An important property of vitamin D is its ability to induce the antimicrobial peptide, human cathelicidin LL-37, and increase expression of the genes coding for microbial pattern recognition receptors. LL-37 has the ability to eliminate microbes through diverse mechanisms, which might play a key role in restricting the development of resistant bacterial strains. In addition to its anti-microbial activities, LL-37 has been demonstrated to elicit a plethora of pleiotropic effects. LL-37 has the ability to strengthen the innate barrier, reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines, and stimulate proliferation and migration of epithelial cells. LL-37 has also been reported to inhibit in vitro osteoclastogenesis and down-regulate expression of osteoclast genes. Monocytes, neutrophils and subsets of T lymphocytes have chemotactic receptors that respond to LL-37. LL-37 induces proliferation and migration of human epithelial cells and enhances activities which promote wound healing. The topical use of vitamin D in psoriasis (chronic inflammatory skin disease) has been shown to increase LL-37 levels and suppress the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-12/23, IL-1α, IL-1β, and TNF-α. Read more.........