Vitamin D Supplementation Improves Health-Related Quality of Life and Physical Performance in Children with Sickle Cell Disease and in Healthy Children

Drawings were made from Tanner's photographs illustrating five stages of development each for male genitalia, testicular size, male pubic hair, female breasts, and female pubic hair. Forty-seven females and forty-eight males aged 12-16 years indicated on questionnaires which stage they were most like, and answered other questions related to their physical development. Afterwards they were examined by physicians who had not seen their answers. Pearson correlation coefficients were 0.6 or above for the physician's observations compared with the adolescents' answers for the drawings, with the exception of testicular size. Answers to questions concerning amount of underarm hair and general development also yielded high correlations.

The literature describing vitamin D content of fat tissue is extremely limited. We conducted a pilot study that measured the concentrations of vitamin D(3) in the fat tissue and serum of obese adults. These measurements were performed using a new liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS) method. The objectives of this study were: to measure and report the vitamin D(3) concentration in serum and subcutaneous fat samples from obese individuals and to examine the association of vitamin D(3) in fat with vitamin D(3) in serum. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 17 obese men and women who were scheduled to undergo gastric bypass surgery. The mean vitamin D(3) concentration in subjects' subcutaneous fat tissue samples was 102.8 +/- 42.0 nmol/kg. The mean vitamin D(3) concentration in serum was 7.78 +/- 3.99 nmol/l. Vitamin D(3) concentrations of fat tissue and serum were positively correlated (r = 0.68, P = 0.003). Consistent with previous findings in obese subjects, subjects in this study had suboptimal vitamin D status as demonstrated by a mean 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration of 43.3 +/- 15.4 nmol/l. In conclusion, fat tissue vitamin D(3) can be measured by LC/MS and is detectable in obese subjects with suboptimal vitamin D status. Compatible with the long-standing concept that fat tissue is a storage site for vitamin D, fat tissue and serum vitamin D(3) concentrations were positively correlated.