Anemia, vitamin D and iron deficiency remains a major public health problem all over the world. Vitamin D is known for its crucial role in bone and mineral metabolism and is increasingly recognized to have extra-skeletal effects on cell proliferation and differentiation, immune function and anti-inflammatory effects. In addition, vitamin D is thought to have effect on iron metabolism and erythropoiesis. The aim of this research was to determine the effect of serum 25(OH) vitamin D (25D) on anemia and iron deficiency in childhood. A hundred and five patients aged between 1-18 years who were admitted Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and Pediatric Endocrinology out-patient clinic between January 2014 and November 2015 in Erzurum Regional and Research Hospital were enrolled in the study. The patients who had signs of infection/inflammation, chronic disease and thalassemia trait were excluded from the study. Data of patients, including gender, age, complete blood count, serum levels of 25D, iron, iron binding capacity and ferritin were retrospectively reviewed. In our study, the prevelance of anemia (11.1%, 27.8%, 11.9%, respectively, p=0.2), the prevelance of iron deficiency (33.3%, 38.9%, 33.3%, respectively, p=0.9), level of serum iron (67.7±35.3 µgr/dL, 63.2±31.9 µgr/dL, 67.5±33.7 µgr/dL, respectively, p=0.8), level of serum ferritin (26±18.9 mg/L, 24±16.4 mg/L, 22.5±18.1 mg/L, respectively, p=0.4) and index of transferrin saturation (26.7±19.1%, 22.5±13.2%, 25.5±19.7, respectively, p=0.7) was not different between 25D deficient, insufficient and normal groups. Our study has not shown an association between anemia, iron deficiency and vitamin D. We think that vitamin D has effect on iron metabolism and erythropoiesis through inflammation pathways and hepsidin. Further studies is needed to evaluate the relation between vitamin D and anemia/iron metabolism.
Key words: Vitamin D, anemia, iron metabolism, childhood
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