ArticleJournal of cardiovascular development and disease2022
Vitamin D Inhibits IL-6 Pro-Atherothrombotic Effects in Human Endothelial Cells: A Potential Mechanism for Protection against COVID-19 Infection?
Article in Journal of cardiovascular development and disease, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations Between Follicular Fluid Biomarkers and IVF/ICSI Outcomes in Normo-Ovulatory Women-A Systematic Review.Biomolecules · 2025Pooled it
- Pharmacological evaluation of vitamin D in COVID-19 and long COVID-19: recent studies confirm clinical validation and highlight metformin to improve VDR sensitivity and efficacy.Inflammopharmacology · 2024Pooled it
- Real-life nanoplastics induce endothelial dysfunction in primary human endothelial cells.Archives of toxicology · 2026Article
- Computational modeling of pro-inflammatory cytokine-enhanced blood coagulation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Vitamin D in Cardiovascular Medicine: From Molecular Mechanisms to Clinical Translation.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Computational Modeling of Pro-inflammatory Cytokine-Enhanced Blood Coagulation.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2026Article
- Vitamin D and Brain Health.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Effect of 17β-Estradiol on Endothelial Cell Expression of Inflammation- Related MicroRNA.MicroRNA (Shariqah, United Arab Emirates) · 2025Article
- Vitamin D Levels as a Marker of Severe SARS-CoV-2 Infection.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Stroke risk in rheumatoid arthritis patients: exploring connections and implications for patient care.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2024Review
- Role of Inflammation in the Development of COVID-19 to Parkinson's Disease.Journal of inflammation research · 2024Article
- Effects of Vitamin D Levels on Long-Term Coronary Events in Patients with Proven Coronary Artery Disease: Six-Year Follow-Up.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Non-Conventional Risk Factors: "Fact" or "Fake" in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention?Biomedicines · 2023Review
- Coagulopathy and thromboembolic events a pathogenic mechanism of COVID-19 associated with mortality: An updated review.Journal of clinical laboratory analysis · 2023Review
- Association of ApaI rs7975232 and BsmI rs1544410 in clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients according to different SARS-CoV-2 variants.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- New Markers for Cardiovascular Disease in Psoriatic Patients: Preliminary Study on Monocyte Phenotype, ADAMTS7, and mTOR Activity.Metabolites · 2023Article
- Rethinking the Role of the Renin-Angiotensin System in the Pandemic Era of SARS-CoV-2.Journal of cardiovascular development and disease · 2023Article
- Article
- The Role of Nuclear Factor Kappa B (NF-κB) in Development and Treatment of COVID-19: Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- The critical issue linking lipids and inflammation: Clinical utility of stopping oxidative stress.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThrombosis with cardiovascular involvement is a crucial complication in COVID-19 infection. COVID-19 infects the host by the angiotensin converting enzyme-2 receptor (ACE2r), which is expressed in endothelial cells too. Thus, COVID-related thrombotic events might be due to endothelial dysfunction. IL-6 is one of the main cytokines involved in the COVID-19 inflammatory storm. Some evidence indicates that Vitamin D (VitD) has a protective role in COVID-19 patients, but the molecular mechanisms involved are still debated. Thus, we investigated the effect of VitD on Tissue Factor and adhesion molecules (CAMs) in IL-6-stimulated endothelial cells (HUVEC). Moreover, we evaluated levels of the ACE2r gene and proteins. Finally, we studied the modulation of NF-kB and STAT3 pathways.
methodsHUVEC cultivated in VitD-enriched medium were stimulated with IL-6 (0.5 ng/mL). The TF gene (RT-PCR), protein (Western blot), surface expression (FACS) and procoagulant activity (FXa generation assay) were measured. Similarly, CAMs soluble values (ELISA) and ACE2r (RT-PCR and Western blot) levels were assessed. NF-kB and STAT3 modulation (Western blot) were also investigated.
resultsVitD significantly reduced TF expression at both gene and protein levels as well as TF-procoagulant activity in IL-6-treated HUVEC. Similar effects were observed for CAMs and ACE2r expression. IL-6 modulates these effects by regulating NF-κB and STAT3 pathways.
conclusionsIL-6 induces endothelial dysfunction with TF and CAMs expression via upregulation of ACE2r. VitD prevented these IL-6 deleterious effects. Thus, it might be speculated that this is one of the hypothetical mechanism(s) by which VitD exerts its beneficial effects in COVID-19 infection.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.