In case you didn't take that seriously, thinking that I was just making a wild guess, I looked up a reference on the effects of vitamin D on psoriasis, to support my claim. It's known that the excess formation of keratin in psoriasis is due to the overexpression of TGF-alpha. Here's a research reference that describes the mechanism by which vitamin D helps to reduce the proliferation of keratinocytes. It seems that the active form of vitamin D can be used to treat psoriasis by virtue of the fact that it inhibits the growth cycle of the TGF-alpha/EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor).Tex wrote:If I were in that situation, I would make sure that my vitamin D level is always near the upper end of the "normal" range, which in SI units would be roughly 200–250 nmol/l, but I wouldn't allow it to exceed 375 nmol/l.
The effectiveness of 1,25(OH)2D3 in suppressing TGF-α-induced growth in psoriasis and renal hyperparathyroidism led us to hypothesize that 1,25(OH)2D3 could be affecting the TGF-α/EGFR-autocrine growth loop. To test this hypothesis, we used the human epidermocarcinoma cell line A431.
1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D Down-regulates Cell Membrane Growth- and Nuclear Growth-promoting Signals by the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor
Tex