Vitamin D and disease

A recent study demonstrates the power of combining chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (ChIP–seq) with genome-wide
association (GWA) study data sets to explore the molecular basis of complex disease.
Ramagopalan and colleagues used ChIP–seq to produce high-resolution
maps of the genomic binding of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) — a ligand-
activated transcription factor — in human lymphoblastoid cell lines, with
and without active ligand. In the presence of ligand, they identified 2,776
binding sites, many of which are in regions associated with active chromatin,
consistent with the expected role of VDR at gene regulatory elements.Vitamin D has been linked to several diseases, particularly autoimmune diseases, but the basis for the link is unclear. The authors compared their ChIP–seq data with GWA study data sets for 47 common traits and found significant enrichment of VDR sites in associated genomic intervals for multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes, along with other autoimmune diseases, cancers and traits such as height.



Nature Reviews Genetics 11, 670 (October 2010) | doi:10.1038/nrg2873