Ms Donna Langley¹, Dr Pawel Sadowski², Dr Giorgio Stefanutti³, Professor Roy Kimble³, Associate Professor Leila Cuttle¹

¹Queensland University Of Technology, South Brisbane, Australia, ²Central Analytical Research Facility (CARF), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Gardens Point, Australia, ³Department of Paediatric Surgery, Urology, Burns and Trauma, Children’s Health Queensland, Queensland Children’s Hospital, South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, South Brisbane, Australia

Abstract:

Vitamin D’s most recognised role in the body is for calcium absorption, and a sufficient state of Vitamin D is greater than 20ng/mL (50nmol/L). Growing children have a high demand for calcium and vitamin D to ensure they have adequate bone mass accrual. Hypovitaminosis D can lead to bone and muscle weakness, fragility fractures, osteoporosis, diabetes and autoimmune disorders. Burns patients are at a greater risk of low vitamin D levels, which may be caused by fluid resuscitation, excessive cellular metabolism or the physical lack of ultraviolet rays hitting the skin due to prolonged hospital admission or sun avoidance as patients are advised to stay out of the sun to avoid worsening scar outcomes. Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (LCMS) is now the gold standard in vitamin D assessment, and research in this area commonly includes several vitamin D metabolites, arguing that analysis solely of 25OHD gives an incomplete picture of vitamin D status. This study assessed 3 metabolites; vitamin D, its epimer and precursor, in 239 plasma samples from burn patients, compared to 46 samples from healthy controls. The results indicated that vitamin D and vitamin D precursor levels decrease with time, and patients with large surface area burns and scald burns have lower vitamin D levels than other burn demographics. Vitamin D deficiency in the burn cohort may lead to larger pathophysiological impacts such as delayed healing, prolonged hospitalisation and poor scar outcomes and the cause of vitamin D deficiency within burns population warrants further investigation.

Biography:

Donna Langley is a Research Assistant, with the QUT burns and trauma research group in Brisbane. Her research is centred on the immune response to a burn, through the use of mass spectrometry to assess metabolites and inflammatory markers, and flow cytometry to examine immune cells.