Tag Archives: vitamin-D

Handout text 2011 AAAAI Seminar San Francisco Vitamin D deficiency

2011 AAAAI Annual Meeting Handout

Session Number: 3523
Session Title: Vitamin D: Vitamin D Deficiency Causes Asthma -> CON
Session Start: 3/20/2011 12:45 AM
Matthias Wjst, Munich

Welcome to the third major symposium on vitamin D and asthma at the AAAAI. Continue reading Handout text 2011 AAAAI Seminar San Francisco Vitamin D deficiency

Finally: more qualified dietary reference intakes for vitamin D

It stirred already the vitamin D community, the new dietary reference intakes with comments at newspapers and blogs. But read yourself all 999 pages ;-) Continue reading Finally: more qualified dietary reference intakes for vitamin D

Once more: Calcium and IgE

Here comes the most striking connection between calcium and IgE that updates some earlier posts here

The fact that the regulation of intracellular Ca2+ concentration is different in various T-cell effectors may offer the opportunity to target key intermediates … to inhibit specifically the functions of one given T-cell subset. Continue reading Once more: Calcium and IgE

Why FFQs don’t predict vitamin D status

Two recent studies used food frequency questionnaires to predict vitamin D status and later allergy (Devereux 2007 and Camargo 2007) probably the only two studies that seem to contradict the vitamin D hypothesis.
New research now reported at the ATS congress [Poster Board # A84] “Measurement of Vitamin D Levels Utilizing Laboratory and Dietary Recall Information from the Tennessee Children’s Respiratory Initiative” and published in Am J Respir Crit Care Med 181;2010:A1890 shows that FFQs don’t predict vitamin D status Continue reading Why FFQs don’t predict vitamin D status

When will they ever learn?

A new abstract shows

Perinatal data for singleton children who were prescribed anti-asthmatic medication (n = 61 256) were compared with corresponding data for all singleton children born in Sweden … (n = 1 338 319). … Being the first-born child, maternal age above 44 yr, involuntary childlessness for more than 1 yr, maternal smoking during pregnancy, maternal diabetes mellitus of any kind, pre-eclampsia, caesarean section, and instrumental vaginal delivery were all associated with an increased prescription of anti-asthmatic medication during childhood. Continue reading When will they ever learn?

rs4711, uh rs7041

The first GWAS of human vitamin serum D level finds the most important SNPs:

In a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 4,501 persons of European ancestry drawn from five cohorts, we identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the gene encoding group-specific component (vitamin D binding) protein, GC, on chromosome 4q12-13 that were associated with 25(OH)D concentrations: rs2282679 (P=2.0 x 10–30), in LD with rs7041, a nonsynonymous SNP (D432E; P=4.1 x 10-22), and rs1155563 (P = 3.8 x 10–25).

Funny, rs7041 is the same variant Continue reading rs4711, uh rs7041

Close the calcium channel to get rid of allergy?

Hopefully the auto-loader at the bottom will pick some previous posts here about calcium, vitamin D and allergy; these may be necessary for the background of a new study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine last week

We looked for Cav1 channel expression in Th2 and Th1-cells by real-time PCR and Western blotting. We sequenced the isoforms expressed by Th2-cells and tested whether Cav1 antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (Cav1AS) affected Ca2+ signaling and cytokine production […] mouse Th2 but not Th1-cells expressed Cav1.2 and Cav1.3 channels. Th2-cells transfected with Cav1AS had impaired Ca2+ signaling and cytokine production, and lost their ability to induce airway inflammation upon adoptive transfer.

This highlights again the close connection of the calcium system to immunology. While the earlier TRPM4 story was basically about mast cells, we now arrived at Th2 cells, yea, yea.

Addendum 29 April 2015

It took some time. Science has a paper on Calcium-sensing receptor antagonists abrogate airway hyperresponsiveness and inflammation in allergic asthma” by Yarova et al. writing about antagonists of the calcium-sensing receptor

We show that polycations and elevated extracellular calcium activate the human recombinant and native calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR), leading to intracellular calcium mobilization … These effects can be prevented by CaSR antagonists, termed calcilytics. Moreover, asthmatic patients and allergen- sensitized mice expressed more CaSR in ASMs than did their healthy counterparts … Thus, calcilytics may represent effective asthma therapeutics.

I don’t know, if the last statement is really warranted but – as written 5 years ago – there is a super tight connection of calcium and vitamin D to allergy.

Allergic sensitization by a food fortifier?

This week the journal “Allergy” printed a report of three cases where allergic sensitization in preterm infants is attributed to the human milk fortifier Similac.

The product contains: Nonfat milk, corn syrup solids, whey protein concentrate, and MCT oil (fractionated coconut or palm kernel oil) as sources of proteins, fat, and carbohydrate (Abbott Laboratories Pediatric Nutritional Products Guide, DIR/98A08, 2008, Mississauga, Canada).

Not listed above but in the Products Guide are 120 IU/100 ml D3 which may indeed function as a sensitizer.

Tolerogenic effects of vitamin D?

A new allergy study published last month

hypothesized that prenatal vitamin D supplementation could induce tolerogenic DC at birth. To evaluate this hypothesis in an epidemiological setting, we quantified the gene expression levels of ILT3 and ILT4 in cord blood (CB) samples of a population-based birth cohort of farm and reference children.

ILT3/IL4 as a marker of tolerogenic DCs may be justified by data published by Chang but not by newer data Continue reading Tolerogenic effects of vitamin D?

Si tacuisses

The BAMSE study group published another vitamin paper – mainly on current multivitamin use and allergy.

Our results …. suggest that supplementation with multivitamins during the first years of life may reduce the risk of allergic disease at school age.

Any further conclusion on early exposure of vitamin D, however, is probably impossible for 3 simple reasons: Continue reading Si tacuisses

More heat than light

There is a new review on vitamin D and allergy.
Reading that piece carefully, I fear that expertise in one area does not guarantee Continue reading More heat than light

Neverending story – vitamin D in pregnancy

screenshot1A new study of 5 year old children relates their current allergy symptoms to LOW maternal intake of vitamin D from food (which is strange within the context of current cohort studies that show a INCREASED risk by vitamin D supplement use).

As this is a diabetes study, the sample is highly biased Continue reading Neverending story – vitamin D in pregnancy

1, 2, 3

A new review [Allergy (2009) vol. 64 (3) pp. 348-353] examines the evidence that

(1) failure to up-regulate the interferon gamma (IFNg) response during infancy is an important determinant of the risk of allergic disease
(2) expression of the IFNg gene in naive T-cells is regulated by epigenetic mechanisms, and
(3) failure to up-regulate IFNg gene expression of naive T-cells associated with low early life microbial exposure.

If we replace “microbial exposure” with Continue reading 1, 2, 3

(1S,3Z)-3-[(2E)-2-[(1R,3aR,7aR)-7a-methyl-1-[(2R)-6-methylheptan-2-yl]-2,3,3a,5,6,7-hexahydro-1H-inden-4-ylidene]ethylidene]-4-methylidene-cyclohexan-1-ol

or briefly vitamin D3. There seems to be another vitamin D /allergy abstract at the forthcoming EAACI congress from the KOALA study. The authors find

Risk for AD was highest for children in the fourth quintile of maternal 25(OH)D level [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 2.08; 95%CI 1.07-4.03] compared to those in the third quintile; P for trend over the quintiles 0.03]. Continue reading (1S,3Z)-3-[(2E)-2-[(1R,3aR,7aR)-7a-methyl-1-[(2R)-6-methylheptan-2-yl]-2,3,3a,5,6,7-hexahydro-1H-inden-4-ylidene]ethylidene]-4-methylidene-cyclohexan-1-ol

Shift happens

The current issue of the blue journal has more stuff on the vitamin D hypothesis (that has been shifted recently into the opposite direction). I agree with the editorial that

Intervention studies of vitamin D in the primary prevention and treatment of asthma raise a number of difficult scientific, ethical, and regulatory issues.

That may be true while the editorial includes the widely quoted myth that immunological effects occur only at high doses Continue reading Shift happens