Does paricalcitol reduce oxidative stress and inflammation in hemodialysis patients?
In renal patients undergoing hemodialysis, paricalcitol treatment significantly reduces oxidative stress and inflammation, two well known factors leading to cardiovascular damage.
These findings demonstrate that maternal vitamin D status plays a role in determining DNA methylation state in the germline and soma. Detection of methylation changes in the unexposed second-generation demonstrates that maternal vitamin D depletion can have long-term effects on the epigenome of subsequent generations. Differences in vitamin D-dependent epigenetic state between cell types and generations indicate perturbation of the epigenetic landscape rather than a targeted, locus-specific effect. While the biological importance of these subtle changes remains unclear, they warrant an investigation of epigenome-wide effects of maternal vitamin D depletion.