[Vitamin D and innate immunity of the skin].

Besides its role in bone metabolism vitamin D is involved in important regulatory mechanisms within the innate and adaptive immune system. In particular, vitamin D affects the production of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). AMPs are endogenous 'antibiotics', produced my man himself with further immune regulatory functions in the skin and other epithelial surfaces. AMPs play a central role in the pathogenesis of several inflammatory skin diseases such as atopic eczema or psoriasis. Therefore, the vitamin D signal pathway could serve as a treatment target for those diseases. In this review we discuss the role of the vitamin D signalling pathway in the context of innate immunity in inflammatory skin diseases. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.