Genes and other environmental factors are likely to influence MS susceptibility, according to a new study.
One of the environmental factors that has been implicated in MS and other autoimmune disease, such as type 1 diabetes, is vitamin D deficiency, in which patients have lower levels of vitamin D in blood than people without MS.
This study suggests that active vitamin D increases the suppressive function of regulatory immune cells. The MSRA-funded Australian and New Zealand Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium (ANZgene) also published evidence to suggest that the region in which CYP27B1 sits is associated with MS susceptibility.
Both sets of results lend further to the role of vitamin D in MS.
