Abstract: Objective To investigate the clinical significance of serum vitamin D levels in patients with chronic hepatitis B. Methods The peripheral vein serum samples of 201 patients with chronic hepatitis B and 100 cases of healthy controls matched by age and gender were collected. Markers of hepatitis B vius (HBV) were detected quantificationally with chemiluminescent micropartical immunoassay; HBV DNA load was detected with fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR); Paremeters of the liver function test were detected by automatic biochemical analyzer. Serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D concentration was detected with electrochemiluminescence assay. Results The serum 25-(OH)D levels of chronic hepatitis B patients were higher than healthy controls [(24.48±10.51) ng/ml vs (21.69±7.45) ng/ml, P=0.008]. After a correction with sampling time, the average serum 25-(OH)D levels of chronic hepatitis B patients was (28.66±11.65) ng/ml and much more higher than that of the healthy controls (P<0.001). The incidence of sufficient vitamin D in chronic hepatitis B group was higher than that in the control group (P=0.001). The 25-(OH)D levels in patients with chronic hepatitis B showed significant linear correlations with ALT (r=0.18, P=0.04), GGT (r=0.27, P<0.01) and HBeAg (r=-0.20, P=0.02); when defining Log10 HBV DNA load as (4.2 ~ 8) IU/ml, there was a significant negative linear correlation between vitamin D levels and Log10 HBV DNA (n=119,r=-0.20, P=0.03). Conclusion The serum vitamin D levels increase in chronic hepatitis B patients and are associated with liver inflammation and HBV replication status. A moderate to high levels of HBV DNA loads and the titers of HBeAg in chronic hepatitis B patients are reversely co-related with their serum vitamin D levels.

Key words: Vitamin D, Chronic hepatitis B, Hepatitis B virus