Effect of Vitamin D on YKL-40: Rat Hypercholesterolemia Model

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: YKL-40 is considered to be associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). In this study, the effect of serum 25(OH) vitamin D [25(OH)VitD] differences between groups on YKL-40 was evaluated on a hypercholesterolemia rat model. METHODS: Thirty-two male rats (wistar albino) were equally divided into 4 groups. The first group was the control group; the second group was high-cholesterol (H-CH) adequate vitamin D (VitD) group (H-Ade(VD)). The third group was the H-CH deficient VitD group (H-Def(VD)), and the last group was designed with the H-CH supplement VitD (H-Sup(VD)). The feeding process consisted of 2 stages. At the first stage (5 months), the H-Def(VD) group was fed on VitD deficient chow, while the other groups (control, H-Ade(VD), H-Sup(VD)) were fed on standard chow. At the second stage (3 months), the H-Ade(VD) and the H-Sup(VD) groups were fed on the H-CH chow, whereas the H-Def(VD) group was fed on the H-CH-VitD deficient chow. Moreover, the H-Sup(VD) group was given 100 IU/kg/day VitD along with the H-CH chow. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, interleukin-6 (IL-6), soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1), and YKL-40 values in the H-Def(VD) groups increased significantly (p<0.001, p<0.001, p=0.009, p=0.005; sequentially). CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that VitD can suppress the YKL-40, thus, it will prevent CVD development in rat. Therefore, further clinical studies related with human will reveal the effect of VitD and YKL-40 on CVD development.