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Health News Archive 543 - Infection
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Vitamin D3 Helps Protect Skin from Infection

In a report published in the March, 2007 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine described their finding that fluctuations in vitamin D3 levels affect the skin's ability to heal.

In African Americans it has been observed that low levels of the active form of vitamin D3 that often occur in this population correlate with increased susceptibility to infection. Vitamin D3 may also be involved in the immune response to tuberculosis.

Professor of medicine Richard L. Gallo, MD, PhD and colleagues found that genes controlled by the active form of vitamin D (1,25D3) play a role in how the innate immune system is controlled in the skin. They discovered that cathelicidin, an antimicrobial peptide produced by white blood cells in wounds when bacteria are sensed, is elevated when skin cells called keratinocytes surrounding wounds raise their production of vitamin D3, which increases the expression of genes that detect microbes.

"Our study shows that skin wounds need vitamin D3 to protect against infection and begin the normal repair process," Dr Gallo stated. "A deficiency in active D3 may compromise the body's innate immune system which works to resist infection, making a patient more vulnerable to microbes."

"Our finding – that multiple, diverse genes controlled by 1,25D3 are increased after injury to the skin – suggests that the availability of D3 is essential to the wound. These responses are a previously unrecognized part of the human injury response," he added.

Dr Gallo's team is beginning clinical trials at UCSD Medical Center to test whether oral and topical vitamin D3 will help improve the immune defenses of individuals with disorders in antimicrobial peptide production such as atopic dermatitis.

Source: Schauber J, Gallo RL. Expanding the roles of antimicrobial peptides in skin: alarming and arming keratinocytes. J Invest Dermatol. 2007 Mar;127(3):510-2. PMID: 17299432

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