Notice: Users may be experiencing issues with displaying some pages on stanfordhealthcare.org. We are working closely with our technical teams to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience.
 

Learn about the flu shot, COVID-19 vaccine, and our masking policy »

Stanford Health Care

Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with reduced regulatory T cell frequency in food-allergic infants. Pediatric allergy and immunology : official publication of the European Society of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology Neeland, M. R., Tursi, A. R., Perrett, K. P., Saffery, R. n., Koplin, J. J., Nadeau, K. C., Andorf, S. n. 2020

Abstract

The influence of vitamin D on human health is strongly associated with tolerogenic immune function, skewing the immune response toward a regulatory phenotype. Ecological and epidemiological studies have resulted in a proposed link between reduced levels of the most abundant circulating form of vitamin D, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), and the development of food allergy in children.1 We have also shown that infants with vitamin D insufficiency (= 50nmol/L) were 11 times more likely to have a peanut allergy and 3 times more likely to have an egg allergy relative to infants with sufficient vitamin D levels.2 Interestingly, in the same cohort, 25(OH)D levels positively correlated with tolerogenic immune responses in 4-year-old children who had naturally outgrown their food allergy.3 There is no single accepted mechanism for the proposed association between vitamin D insufficiency and food allergy.4 Rather, a combination of several mechanisms is hypothesized to be involved, including the potential to modulate immune cell proportions or function, including that of regulatory T cells.4.

View details for DOI 10.1111/pai.13439

View details for PubMedID 33351974