title: Micronutrients, their potential effect on patients with systemic sclerosis.
abstract: Over the past years, several evidences have supported an important role of specific micronutrients, including vitamin A, vitamin D and vitamin E in immune dysfunction, vascular involvement and fibrotic changes involved in systemic sclerosis (SSc) development. In PubMed, eight clinical trials about the therapy of micronutrients on SSc patients were searched out using medical subject headings terms (SSc: "scleroderma, localized", "scleroderma, systemic", "scleroderma, diffuse" and "scleroderma, limited"; vitamins "vitamin A", "thiamin", "riboflavin", "niacin", "pantothenic acid", "vitamin B 6", "biotin", "folic acid", "vitamin B 12", "inositol", "choline", "ascorbic acid", "vitamin D", "vitamin E", "tocopherols", "vitamin K" and "vitamin P"; and minerals: "calcium", "magnesium", "potassium", "sodium", "phosphorus", "sulfur", "chlorine", "iron", "copper", "iodine", "zinc", "selenium", "manganese", "molybdenum", "cobalt", "chromium", "tin", "vanadium", "silicon", "nickel" and "fluorine"). This brief review will summarize current understanding on that for the further prospect of future studies. Though the clinical trials for the treatment of SSc with micronutrients are still in their infancy, more researches are needed to substantiate the current results and accelerate the knowledge in this field.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University , Hefei , P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ya-Nan
authors.initials: YN
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.forename: Jun-Wei
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Wen-Jia
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Jun-Qing
authors.initials: JQ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Chang-Chun
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Bing-Xiang
authors.initials: BX
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D018977:Micronutrients / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012595:Scleroderma, Systemic / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D018977:Micronutrients
keywords: Clinical trials; Micronutrient; Systemic sclerosis; Therapy; Vitamin