eng Science and Education Publishing Journal of Food and Nutrition Research 2333-1240 2017-01-06 5 1 15 21 10.12691/jfnr-5-1-3 JFNR2017513 article Fatme Al Anouti 1 Sarah El Hajj Chehadeh 2 Enas Osman 2 Gehad ElGhazali 3 Habiba Al Safar habiba.alsafar@kustar.ac.ae 3 4 Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Khalifa University Center of Biotechnology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab emirates Institute of Laboratory Medicine, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Despite the sunny weather in the Arabic Gulf Countries, vitamin D (VTD) insufficiency has been recently recognized as a serious health problem in this region. While diet and sun exposure are the main factors which determine the concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 [25(OH)D3], genetic variants VTD metabolizing enzymes, especially CYP2R1, CYP24A1 and CYP27B1, have gained a lot of interest lately. This study aims to investigate the association between VTD insufficiency and genetic variants of CYP2R1, CYP27B1 and CYP24A1 among young adult Emiratis. Healthy young adult United Arab Emirates (UAE) nationals (111 female, 52 male) with a mean age of 20.32 ± 2.35 years were recruited for the study. Genotyping for 5 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in CYP2R1, CYP24A1 and CYP27B1 genes were performed by TaqMan® assays, while serum 25(OH)D3 was measured by Diasorin analyzer (LIAISON). Our results showed that the GT+TT genotype of CYP27B1 (rs10877012) (OR: 6.13, 95%CI [1.76-21.33], p=0.001) and the AG+GG genotype of CYP27B1 (rs4646536) (OR: 2.57, 95%CI [1.02-6.49], p=0.040) were significantly more frequent in VTD insufficient subjects while the GG genotype of CYP24A1 (rs2762939) (OR: 0.10, 95%CI [0.006-1.81], p=0.036) and the TT genotype of CYP24A1 (rs6013897) (OR: 0.10, 95%CI [0.006-1.76], p=0.033) were significantly more frequent in sufficient subjects. Moreover, the haplotype (GTGA) was significantly more frequent in sufficient subjects (p=1.22x10-5), while the frequency of haplotype GTTG was significantly high in the insufficient group (p=0.004). The data strongly suggest that genetic variants relevant to VTD metabolism could play an important role in defining VTD status among the young adult Emirati population. http://pubs.sciepub.com/jfnr/5/1/3/jfnr-5-1-3.pdf Vitamin D metabolism CYP2R1 CYP24A1 and CYP27B1 Genetic variants Emiratis