Low levels of vitamin D are commonly found in people with type 1 diabetes. But even children who have multiple positive islet autoantibodies without manifest type 1 diabetes have lower levels of vitamin D in their blood. This does not appear, however, to influence the progression of the disease from pre-diabetes to diabetes, according to scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Technical University of Munich in the specialist journal Diabetologia.

Vitamin D is known as a major regulator of calcium levels and bone metabolism. Furthermore, it also influences the immune system. Previous studies have shown that patients with recently diagnosed type 1 diabetes have significantly lower vitamin D levels. Scientists from the Institute of Diabetes Research (IDF) and the Helmholtz Zentrum München, a member of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), as well as from the Diabetes Research Group at the Technische Universität München (TUM) examined whether a vitamin D deficiency occurs during an early stage of type 1 diabetes, defined by the presence of multiple diabetes-specific islet autoantibodies. Furthermore they also determined whether vitamin D deficiency influences the progression to type 1 diabetes in children with multiple islet autoantibodies.