The Effects of Vitamin D on Angiogenic Factors in Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) affects 5 to 10% of women of reproductive age. It is characterized by a cluster of hyperandrogenism, hyperinsulinemia, menstrual dysfunction, hirsutism and infertility. Although the pathogenesis of PCOS is unknown, accumulating evidence suggests that the dysregulation of some angiogenic factors, such as transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), may be implicated. TGF-βs and VEGF exert a diverse range of biological functions regulating cell proliferation, angiogenesis, fibroblast activation and tissue fibrosis. PCOS ovaries show all the hallmarks of TGF-β and VEGF upregulation, including increased collagen deposition in ovarian stroma and theca, supported by increased vascularity. Consistent with this, The investigators recently showed that TGF-β1 is increased in serum of PCOS women while its circulating receptor soluble endoglin (sENG) is decreased, resulting in greater TGF-β1 bioavailability. Furthermore, it has been shown that women with PCOS have increased VEGF levels in the serum and/or follicular fluid. PCOS patients also have decreased vitamin D levels, and vitamin D treatment has been previously shown to improve various clinical parameters in PCOS women, including glucose intolerance, hypertension and androgen levels. Interestingly, vitamin D has been shown to decrease TGF-β1 and VEGF levels in several diseases, including myelofibrosis and various human cancer cells. Therefore, the investigators hypothesize that vitamin D treatment of PCOS women will result in a decrease of serum TGF-β1 levels and/or VEGF levels concomitant with improvement in clinical disease parameters. In addition, the investigators hypothesize that improvement in clinical disease parameters will correlate with changes in serum VEGF levels and TGF-β1 bioavailability. Our aim in the present study is to investigate the effects of vitamin D treatment on serum VEGF and TGF-β1/sENG levels in PCOS women, and assess whether changes in these angiogenic factors following vitamin D treatment correlate with clinical disease in these women. For this end, PCOS patients who are vitamin D-deficient will be treated with vitamin D and their serum levels of VEGF, TGF-β1 and its sENG receptor will be measured before and after treatment. In addition, clinical disease parameters will be recorded before and 4 months after treatment, including serum glucose and insulin levels, serum androgen levels, and blood pressure. The proposed study aims to identify a putative link between vitamin D, VEGF, and TGF-β1 in the context of PCOS, and provide a novel molecular explanation for the beneficial clinical effects of vitamin D on PCOS patients.