Effects of 1,25 (OH)2D3 treatment on lipid levels in uremic hemodialysis patients.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of 1,25 (OH)2D3 treatment on lipid levels in uremic hemodialysis (HD) patients. Thirty-one HD patients who had never been treated with vitamin D nor related drugs and 12 healthy subjects with normal renal functions were studied. Uremic HD patients were randomly divided into two groups. Sixteen uremic HD patients were treated with oral calcitriol (0.5 micrograms/day) for 8 weeks. 13 uremic HD patients and 12 healthy subjects were given placebo. In all these cases before and after 8 weeks of treatments; serum total lipid, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride levels were determined. After calcitriol treatment, triglyceride levels were significantly decreased. But total lipid, cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels did not significantly change. In the other two groups there were no significant changes. These results show that calcitriol treatment has a positive effect on triglyceride levels in uremic HD patients. This effect of mechanism of calcitriol treatment has not been known yet. But it could be due to regulation carbohydrates metabolism and normalization of parathormone (PTH) levels.