title: Vitamin D every day to keep the infection away?
abstract: Within the last decade, vitamin D has emerged as a central regulator of host defense against infections. In this regard, vitamin D triggers effective antimicrobial pathways against bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens in cells of the human innate immune system. However, vitamin D also mediates potent tolerogenic effects: it is generally believed that vitamin D attenuates inflammation and acquired immunity, and thus potentially limits collateral tissue damage. Nevertheless, several studies indicate that vitamin D promotes aspects of acquired host defense. Clinically, vitamin D deficiency has been associated with an increased risk for various infectious diseases in epidemiological studies; yet, robust data from controlled trials investigating the use of vitamin D as a preventive or therapeutic agent are missing. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge regarding the effect of vitamin D on innate and acquired host defense, and speculate on the difficulties to translate the available molecular medicine data into practical therapeutic or preventive recommendations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Foods and Nutrition, College of Natural Sciences, Dongduk Women's University, 23-1 Wolgok-dong, Sungbuk-gu, Seoul 136-714, Korea. jdcastro@smail.uni-koeln.de.|Department of Dermatology, University of Cologne, 50937 Cologne, Germany. jdcastro@smail.uni-koeln.de.
authors.forename: Juliana de Castro
authors.initials: Jde C
authors.lastname: Kroner
authors.affiliation: Department of Foods and Nutrition, College of Natural Sciences, Dongduk Women's University, 23-1 Wolgok-dong, Sungbuk-gu, Seoul 136-714, Korea. andrea.sommer@uk-koeln.de.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sommer
authors.affiliation: Department of Foods and Nutrition, College of Natural Sciences, Dongduk Women's University, 23-1 Wolgok-dong, Sungbuk-gu, Seoul 136-714, Korea. mario.fabri@uk-koeln.de.|Department of Dermatology, University of Cologne, 50937 Cologne, Germany. mario.fabri@uk-koeln.de.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fabri
mesh_terms: D056704:Adaptive Immunity; D000818:Animals; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D014807:Vitamin D / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000276:immunology*; D014808:Vitamin D Deficiency / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications
chemical_list: D014807:Vitamin D
keywords: T cell; Vitamin D; dendritic cell; infection and immunity; macrophage