Cent Eur J Public Health 2021, 29(2):130-133 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a6117

Natural selection at work? Vitamin D deficiency rates and rising health problems in young Turkish Cypriot professionals

Emine Kandemiş¹, Gülten Tuncel², Umut Fahrioğlu^{2, 3}, Şehime Gülsün Temel⁴, Gamze Mocan^{3, 5}, Mahmut Çerkez Ergören^{2, 6}

¹ Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul, Turkey

² DESAM Institute, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus

³ Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus

⁴ Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Bursa Uludag University, Bursa, Turkey

⁵ Department of Medical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus

⁶ Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus

Objectives: Vitamin D is a fat-soluble, prohormone vitamin that is important especially for bone mineralization and skeletal health. In recent years, vitamin D deficiency appeared as a worldwide problem, affecting many people in different ways including the Northern Cypriot population. The deficiency might be caused by the lack of exposure to sunlight, diet low in vitamin D, sedentary lifestyle, and also due to some genetic variations in the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene.

Methods: In this study, four common VDR polymorphisms and associations with vitamin D deficiency in the Turkish Cypriot population between ages 18-40 and working in office conditions was studied by PCR- RFLP analysis.

Results: rs2228570 C>T variant was shown to be significantly associated with low serum vitamin D levels in the studied population.

Conclusion: Together with the effect of rs2228570 C>T variant in the VDR gene, it is thought that the lifestyle changes in the Turkish Cypriot population might have caused the increased frequency of vitamin D deficiency in the young professionals.

Keywords: vitamin D deficiency, VDR, polymorphism, young professionals, Turkish Cypriots

Received: January 29, 2020; Revised: January 25, 2021; Accepted: January 25, 2021; Published: June 30, 2021  Show citation