The latest study that adds to the exiting benefits of Vitamin D proposes that the vitamin can help in activation of T-cells in the body that fight infections and save from many contagious diseases.
Dr Carsten Geisler and his colleagues from the Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Copenhagen initiated the present study that examined the role played by Vitamin D in activating the immune defenses.
“When a T cell is exposed to a foreign pathogen, it extends a signaling device or 'antenna' known as a vitamin D receptor, with which it searches for vitamin D,” informs Dr Geisler who led the research.
“This means the T cell must have vitamin D or activation of the cell will cease. If the T cells cannot find enough vitamin D in the blood, they won't even begin to mobilize,” he further says.
Study details
The team of Danish scientists conducted clinical trials in their laboratory with human T-cells and found that Vitamin D triggers a vital signaling enzyme that results in activation of these cells.
When the T-cell identifies bacteria or viruses with T cell receptor (TCR), it transmits stimulation signals to the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene. The VDR gene then starts producing a protein which combines with vitamin D in the T cell and is activated.
These cells then form PLC-gamma1 protein that triggers the T-cells to get started and perform their function.
Dr Carsten Geisler says, “Scientists have known for a long time that vitamin D is important for calcium absorption and the vitamin has also been implicated in diseases such as cancer
and multiple sclerosis.”
“But what we didn't realize is how crucial vitamin D is for actually activating the immune system - which we know now,” he adds.
Fighting the flu
Another study initiated by director of Vitamin D Council, Dr John Cannell, and his colleagues has established that vitamin D fabricates antibacterial peptides that protect against infections like flu.
This is the reason why people become Vitamin D deficient in winters and succumb to flu and other viral infections.
Dr. Cannell says, “Patients/residents who maintained a high level of serum vitamin d acquired swine flu last year while many of other patients and medical workers who did not take vitamin D to maintain high vitamin D levels got swine flu and other flu viruses.”
The findings of the research have been detailed in the March 7 online edition of ‘Nature Immunology’.
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