No effects of oral vitamin D supplementation on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in patients with type 2 diabetes: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Study answer

What this study found

Vitamin D supplementation did not improve hepatic steatosis or related metabolic and cardiovascular outcomes over 24 weeks. Change in hepatic fat fraction was not significantly different between groups (beta, 0.63; 95% CI, -1.6 to 2.8; P = 0.57), and active-arm hepatic fat fraction remained similar from baseline to 24 weeks (6.8 [3.9-14.8] to 7 [4.4-12.9]). Liver injury markers, insulin resistance measures, adiponectin, inflammatory markers, and vascular measures also showed no meaningful benefit; an ABI difference of -0.10 (-0.18 to -0.01) reached P = 0.03 but was not significant after…

Study & population

This was a single-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted at a diabetes outpatient clinic in Rome, Italy.

Intervention

Participants in the active arm received oral cholecalciferol 2000 IU/day, given as eight drops daily for 24 weeks, compared with placebo.

Key limitation

The active arm was small, single-center, and only 24 weeks in duration, limiting power to detect modest effects and limiting generalizability.

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Original abstract