ABSTRACT
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease in which genetic and environmental factors result in impaired epidermal barrier functioning and an altered immune response. Vitamin D influences these 2 pathomechanisms, and beneficial results have been suggested in AD. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential roles of the 2 essential vitamin D metabolizing enzymes. The frequencies of 6 common polymorphisms in the genes encoding the vitamin D synthesizing enzyme Cyp27b1 or the inactivating enzyme Cyp24a1 were assessed in 281 patients with AD and 278 healthy donors in a case-control setting. The Cyp24a1 rs2248359-major C allele was significantly over-represented in patients with AD compared with controls, which was more pronounced in patients with severe AD. In addition, haplotypes of the Cyp24a1 and Cyp27b1 genes were associated with AD. These data support that vitamin D mediates beneficial functions in AD and suggest that future studies on the impact of vitamin D on AD should consider the individual genotypes of the vitamin D metabolizing enzymes.