Pierre Olivier Lang1, Richard Aspinall2. 1. Health & Wellbeing Academy, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Geriatric and Geriatric Rehabilitation Division, University Hospital of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. Electronic address: pierre-olivier.lang@chuv.ch. 2. Health & Wellbeing Academy, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Abstract
PURPOSE: Vitamin D is increasingly thought to play a role in regulating immunity. This comprehensive review updates the current understanding regarding ways in which we believe that vitamin D regulates responsiveness of the immune system and how serum status modulates the host defense against pathogens. METHODS: The literature was searched by using PubMed and Scopus with the following key words: vitamin D, immunity, innate and adaptive immunity, infectious disease, and vaccine response. FINDINGS: Vitamin D deficiency remains a major public health concern worldwide. The overall body of evidence confirms that vitamin D plays an important role in modulating the immune response to infections. Epidemiologic studies suggest a clear association between vitamin D deficiency and susceptibility to various pathogens. However, translation of vitamin D use into the clinic as a means of controlling infections is fraught with methodologic and epidemiologic challenges. The recent discovery of alternative activation pathways, different active forms of vitamin D, and possible interaction with non-vitamin D receptors provide further complications to an already complex interaction between vitamin D and the immune system. Moreover, it has become apparent that the individual responsiveness to supplementation is more dynamic than presumed from the static assessment of 25-hydroxy vitamin D status. Furthermore, the epigenetic response at the level of the individual to environmental changes and lifestyle or health conditions provides greater variation than those resulting from vitamin D receptor polymorphisms. IMPLICATIONS: To understand the future of vitamin D with respect to clinical applications in the prevention and better control of infectious diseases, it is necessary to determine all aspects of vitamin D metabolism, as well as the mechanisms by which active forms interact with the immune system globally. For the most part, we are unable to identify tissue-specific applications of supplementation except for those subjects at high risk of osteomalacia and osteoporosis.
PURPOSE:Vitamin D is increasingly thought to play a role in regulating immunity. This comprehensive review updates the current understanding regarding ways in which we believe that vitamin D regulates responsiveness of the immune system and how serum status modulates the host defense against pathogens. METHODS: The literature was searched by using PubMed and Scopus with the following key words: vitamin D, immunity, innate and adaptive immunity, infectious disease, and vaccine response. FINDINGS:Vitamin D deficiency remains a major public health concern worldwide. The overall body of evidence confirms that vitamin D plays an important role in modulating the immune response to infections. Epidemiologic studies suggest a clear association between vitamin D deficiency and susceptibility to various pathogens. However, translation of vitamin D use into the clinic as a means of controlling infections is fraught with methodologic and epidemiologic challenges. The recent discovery of alternative activation pathways, different active forms of vitamin D, and possible interaction with non-vitamin D receptors provide further complications to an already complex interaction between vitamin D and the immune system. Moreover, it has become apparent that the individual responsiveness to supplementation is more dynamic than presumed from the static assessment of 25-hydroxyvitamin D status. Furthermore, the epigenetic response at the level of the individual to environmental changes and lifestyle or health conditions provides greater variation than those resulting from vitamin D receptor polymorphisms. IMPLICATIONS: To understand the future of vitamin D with respect to clinical applications in the prevention and better control of infectious diseases, it is necessary to determine all aspects of vitamin D metabolism, as well as the mechanisms by which active forms interact with the immune system globally. For the most part, we are unable to identify tissue-specific applications of supplementation except for those subjects at high risk of osteomalacia and osteoporosis.
Authors: Moses M Ngari; Johnstone Thitiri; Laura Mwalekwa; Molline Timbwa; Per Ole Iversen; Greg W Fegan; James A Berkley Journal: Matern Child Nutr Date: 2017-11-27 Impact factor: 3.092
Authors: William B Grant; Henry Lahore; Sharon L McDonnell; Carole A Baggerly; Christine B French; Jennifer L Aliano; Harjit P Bhattoa Journal: Nutrients Date: 2020-04-02 Impact factor: 5.717