Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Jul 25, 2015; 6(8): 1057-1064
Published online Jul 25, 2015. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v6.i8.1057
Is there a relationship between vitamin D with insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus?
Kamal AS Al-Shoumer, Thamer M Al-Essa
Kamal AS Al-Shoumer, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolic Medicine, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, 13110 Safat, Kuwait
Kamal AS Al-Shoumer, Thamer M Al-Essa, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolic Medicine, Department of Medicine, Mubarak Al Kabeer Hospital, 46304 Jabriya, Kuwait
Author contributions: Both authors contributed to this work.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict of interest of any kind.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Kamal AS Al-Shoumer, MD, FRCP, PhD, FACE, Professor and Consultant, Head, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolic Medicine, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, PO Box 24923, 13110 Safat, Kuwait. kshoumer@gmail.com
Telephone: +965-25-319596 Fax: +965-25-313511
Received: December 7, 2014
Peer-review started: December 9, 2014
First decision: January 8, 2015
Revised: April 17, 2015
Accepted: May 5, 2015
Article in press: May 6, 2015
Published online: July 25, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: A potential role for abnormal vitamin D level in changes of glucose homeostasis has been described. It has been demonstrated that deficient vitamin D status is detrimental to the synthesis and secretion of insulin in animal and human studies. In several, but not all, human observational trials, an inverse correlation was seen between vitamin D with insulin insensitivity, pre-diabetic states and dysglycemia. However, evidence from randomized interventional studies assessing the effects of changes in vitamin D status on markers of dysglycemia and diabetes prevention is not available. Therefore, firm and true protective influence of vitamin D on glucose homeostasis remains to be defined.