"Let there be light": the role of vitamin D in the immune response to vaccines.

Abstract

Vitamin D's non-skeletal actions, including immunomodulatory role, have been increasingly recognized. Of significance, many immune cells are able to synthesize a biologically active form of vitamin D from circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D with subsequent intracrine actions, and the vitamin D receptor is broadly distributed. In this review, we discuss vitamin D's potent role in innate and adaptive immune responses and published studies evaluating the impact of serum vitamin D, vitamin D gene pathway polymorphisms or empiric vitamin D supplementation on vaccine immunogenicity. We highlight existing knowledge gaps and propose the steps needed to advance the science and answer the question of whether vitamin D may prove valuable as a vaccine adjuvant for certain vaccines against infectious diseases.

• Authors: Sapna P Sadarangani, Jennifer A Whitaker, Gregory A Poland
• Journal: Expert review of vaccines (Expert Rev Vaccines) Vol. 14 Issue 11 Pg. 1427-40 ( 2015) ISSN: 1744-8395 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 26325349 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural, Review)

Chemical References

• Immunologic Factors
• Vaccines
• Vitamin D

Topics

• Adaptive Immunity (drug effects)
• Humans
• Immunity, Innate (drug effects)
• Immunologic Factors (pharmacology)
• Vaccines (administration & dosage, immunology)
• Vitamin D (pharmacology)