Does vitamin D status contribute to caveolin-1-mediated insulin sensitivity in skeletal muscle? Reply to Boucher BJ [letter]

Abstract

To the Editor: Vitamin D deficiency is a significant risk factor for type 2 diabetes, although the effect of vitamin D supplementation for treatment of type 2 diabetes is still under debate [1–3]. It has also been reported that vitamin D receptor (VDR) is present in caveolae [4]. Dr Boucher has therefore posed two important questions [5] in response to our study [6] on caveolin-1 in an ageing-dependent nonobese type 2 diabetic animal model (JYD mouse): (1) whether insulin sensitivity could be improved by vitamin D in JYD mice; and (2) whether such an improvement might be due to an upregulation of caveolin-1 production affected by vitamin D.