Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) Gene Variants and Susceptibility to BPH in a North Indian Population

BPH is most commonly encountered non-neoplastic prostatic disease. Despite its high prevalence and major impact on quality of life of patient, the aetio-pathogenesis and risk factor of BPH are not clear. The only risk factor of BPH established in several independent and longitudinal studies is aging. BPH lacks established genetic markers for determining disease susceptibility. Vitamin D primarily known to be involved in calcium homeostasis also regulates growth and differentiation of diverse types of cells through specific receptor, the VDR (Feldman et al., 2001). Interaction of vitamin-D with VDR is thought to influence androgen receptor activation and the development of BPH (Blazer et al., 2000). Vitamin D3, the activated form of vitamin D and some of its analogues have been described as potent regulators of cell growth and differentiation of isolated epithelial cells derived from patients with BPH (Crescioli et al., 2000). VDR agonists have been shown to be useful in treating BPH patients (Adorini et al., 2000). While others reported that in the absence of testosterone, 1,25-D might exert a growth-promoting effect on the prostatic stroma in vivo (Konety et al., 1996). Recently it was found that a low