Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with reduced regulatory T cell frequency in food-allergic infants

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 tolerogen..