Journal of Alzheimers Disease & Parkinsonism
Open Access

Research Article

Low Serum 25(OH)D Levels in Parkinson Disease; a Non Specific Marker of Neurodegeneration?

Olivola Enrica¹, Cerroni Rocco¹, Conti Marco¹, Pierantozzi Mariangela¹, Liguori Claudio² and Stefani Alessandro^1*

¹Movement Disorders Centre, Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy

²Sleep Disorders Centre, Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy

Corresponding Author:

Alessandro Stefani
Department of Systems Medicine
University of Rome, “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy
Tel: +39-6-20903115
Fax : 39620903118
E-mail: stefani@uniroma2.it

Received date: October 19, 2015; Accepted date: December 07, 2015; Published date: December 14, 2015

Citation: Enrica O, Rocco C, Marco C, Mariangela P, Claudio L, et al. (2015) Low Serum 25(OH)D Levels in Parkinson’s Disease; a Non Specific Marker of Neurodegeneration? J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 5:200. doi: 10.4172/2161-0460.1000200

Copyright: © 2015 Enrica O, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Objective: Several investigations have recently inferred that a low serum vitamin D concentration may contribute to cognitive impairment in the elderly. Here, we assessed whether in a cohort of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients attributable to any disease stage a deficit in serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH) D) levels occurred as previously proposed and, more importantly, if it is correlated with cognitive impairment or disease duration. Methods: Our PD group (n=54) was compared to an age-matched control group (n= 30), but also to patients afflicted by Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (n= 17) and motor neuron disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - ALS) (n=19). Results: Serum 25(OH)D levels > 30 ng/ml was found in 37% of PD patients (versus 76% in controls); in 34 out of 54 PD patients low 25(OH)D levels occurred (28,73 ± 20,22 ng/ml vs 44,52 ± 18,48 ng/ml in control group); however, no correlation with mini mental state examination (MMSE) or disease progression emerged in PD patients. AD cohort was characterized by a significantly lower vitamin D concentration (half manifesting severe deficiency below 10 ng/ml, in contrast with 18% amongst PD). To note, also in ALS, pathological low levels of vitamin D, comparable to PD, was found. Conclusion: Our findings highlight that vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency is shared by multiple neurodegenerative diseases, albeit a-specifically. In PD, 25(OH) D levels do not correlate with cognitive performance. On one hand, these data confirm the opportunity to restore vitamin D levels in a variety of neurological disorders; on the other, they suggest that, in PD, at contrast with AD, vitamin D insufficiency should not play a relevant role in influencing disease severity or unmasking an associated dementia.

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