Will a simple, daily dose of sunshine correct the majority of our immune problems? Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with asthma, IgE levels, atopy, and obesity. Now new research has associated vitamin D deficiency with allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA), which is, in turn, associated with Aspergillus fumigatus colonization in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients; however, only a small percentage of affected CF patients develop ABPA.
Kreindler et al. (J Clin Invest 2010, doi:10.1172/JCI42388) investigated this observation by comparing the Th2 profiles of ABPA CF patients and colonized, non-ABPA CF patients. They found that ABPA CF patients were characterized by a TSLP- & OX40L-driven Th2 environment. In contrast, non-ABPA CF patients did not have an excessive Th2 response and had high levels of TGF-β producing Tregs. Since vitamin D has been associated with Treg development, the authors assessed vitamin D levels in both groups; they found that ABPA patients were significantly deficient relative to the non-ABPA group. They went on to demonstrate that vitamin D deficiency lowered Tgfb mRNA and raised OX40L levels in mice. Treatment with vitamin D reversed these conditions.
Kreindler and coauthors suggested that their data demonstrated that vitamin D increases the proportion of TGF-β to OX40L favoring the induction of Tregs rather than Th2 cells.
Tell us what you think. Please feel free to post your comments below. Topics and articles that you think would be of interest in our NBOP section and/or this blog can be sent to the JACI Editorial Office at jaci@njhealth.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment