ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Clinical Nutrition
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1597527
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Role of Vitamin D in Metabolic and Cardiovascular Health - Volume IIView all 9 articles
Associations of Vitamin D with Lipid Metabolism, Inflammation, and Mortality Vary by Glycemic Status and Gender: A Nationwide Prospective Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
- 2Soochow University, Suzhou, China
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Background: We aimed to investigate the associations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) with lipid, inflammatory, and injury biomarkers, and their potential mediating roles in vitamin D-related mortality. Methods: We analyzed data from 4144 participants in the 2015–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Glycemic status was classified using fasting plasma glucose and hemoglobin A1c levels. Key biomarkers were assessed, including visceral adiposity index (VAI) and systemic inflammation response index (SIRI). Multivariate linear regression and restricted cubic spline models examined associations. Results: In females, 25OHD was positively associated with HDL-cholesterol across all glycemic subgroups, and with triglycerides and total cholesterol in the normal glycemic subgroup (all P < 0.05). In males, inverse associations of 25OHD with triglycerides and VAI were most pronounced in the prediabetes group (P < 0.05). 25OHD was inversely associated with SIRI in normoglycemic individuals and prediabetic males. Mediation analyses revealed that SIRI partially mediated the inverse association between 25OHD and mortality only in prediabetic males, while lipid and injury biomarkers showed no significant mediation effects in any subgroup. Conclusion: Gender and glycemic status influence the associations between vitamin D and biomarkers, with inflammation potentially mediating the relationship between vitamin D and mortality in prediabetic males.
Keywords: Vitamin D, Dyslipidemia, systemic inflammation, Oxidative Stress, cardiometabolicrisk, gender differences, NHANES, glycemic control
Received: 21 Mar 2025; Accepted: 17 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cai, Jiang, Xu, Zhao, Sun, Yang, Gu and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Meizhi Cai, caimeizhi1987@hotmail.com
Yifan Huang, yyzhyf@hotmail.com
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