Evidence for a causal relationship between low vitamin D, high BMI, and pediatric-onset MS

Milena A Gianfrancesco¹, Pernilla Stridh¹, Brooke Rhead¹+41

• ¹From the Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health (M.A.G., X.S., E.X., H.Q., D.Q., C.M., L.F.B.), and Computational Biology Graduate Group (B.R.), University of California, Berkeley; Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Center for Molecular Medicine (P.S.), Karolinska Institutet at Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Neurology (J.S.G., E.W.) and Regional Pediatric MS Center, Neurology (J.H., S.C.), University of California, San Francisco; Partners Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center (T.C.), Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, Boston; Division of Neurology (A.W.), Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, PA; Blue Bird Circle Multiple Sclerosis Center (T.L.), Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX; Children's Hospital Colorado (T.S.), University of Colorado, Denver; Lourie Center for Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis (A.B., L.K.), Stony Brook Children's Hospital, NY; Department of Neurology (B.G.), University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas; Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center (B.W.-G.), Jacobs Neurological Institute, SUNY Buffalo, NY; Pediatric MS Center at Loma Linda University Children's Hospital (G.A.), CA; Mayo Clinic's Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center (J.M.T., M.R.), Rochester, MN; University of Alabama Center for Pediatric-onset Demyelinating Disease (J.N., Y.H.), Children's Hospital of Alabama, Birmingham; Department of Pediatric Neurology (J.R.), Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL; Primary Children's Hospital (M.C.), University of Utah, Salt Lake City; Boston Children's Hospital (M.G., L.B.), MA; Pediatric-onset Demyelinating Diseases and Autoimmune Encephalitis Center (S.M.), St. Louis Children's Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine, MO; Children's National Medical Center (I.K.), Washington, DC; Departments of Neurology (J.R.) and Pediatrics (S.R., T.C.C.), University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City; Kaiser Permanente Division of Research (L.S., C.S., L.F.B.), Oakland, CA; Institute of Environmental Medicine (J.H., M.B., A.H., T.O., I.K., L.A.), Karolinska Institutet; Centre for Occupational and Environmental Medicine (L.A.), Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden; and Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health (C.S.), Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA.+1