Vitamin D as a T-cell modulator in multiple sclerosis
Vitam Horm. 2011;86:401-28.
Smolders J, Damoiseaux J.
School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands; Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Clinical and Experimental Immunology, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Vitamin D is a potent immune modulator, keeping the T-cell compartment in a more tolerogenic state. Multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease in which an autoreactive T-cell response contributes to inflammation in the central nervous system, has been associated with vitamin D deficiency. The effects of vitamin D on the immune system are believed to be an important driver of this association. In this chapter, we elaborate on vitamin D as a modulator of the T-cell response. This discussion will be placed in the perspective of MS as a T-cell-mediated disease and in the perspective of the numerous association studies on vitamin D deficiency and multiple health outcomes.
We conclude that there is a firm experimental and epidemiological basis supporting the model of vitamin D as a physiological immune modulator, on which intervention studies assessing clinical and immunological outcome measures should be designed.
Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. PMID: 21419282
- - - - - - -