Vitamin D levels found to be lower in patients with neovascular AMD Higher serum vitamin D level correlated with a slightly decreased incidence of age-related macular degeneration in a study presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology 2010 meeting.

The study was the first to report an apparent association between the vitamin D pathway gene CYP24A1 and neovascular AMD, Alexandra C. Silveira, PhD, said.

"This has some pretty interesting implications," Dr. Silveira said. "First of all, by showing different haplotypes that were either associated with dry or neovascular AMD, that suggested that maybe we could add something to the idea of a genetic signature that could better predict which patients will go on to progress to certain form of the disease."

Investigators genotyped 59 tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms in the vitamin D metabolism pathway genes VDR, CYP27B1, CYP24A1 and CYP27A1 in 135 sibling pairs. In each pair, one sibling had neovascular AMD and the other did not.

Analysis of serum levels showed slightly elevated vitamin D levels in siblings unaffected by AMD. After controlling for age, gender, smoking history, CFH and ARMS2/HTRA1, only variation in the CYP24A1 gene affected AMD risk.

However, a causal relationship between the CYP24A1 gene and AMD has not been determined conclusively. Research into the role of the vitamin D genetic pathway in a larger patient cohort is under way, Dr. Silveira said.

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