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Antibacterial effects of vitamin D

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 7, pages 337–345 (2011)Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 25 July 2011

This article has been updated

Abstract

Interaction between vitamin D and the immune system has been recognized for many years, but its relevance to normal human physiology has only become evident in the past 5 years. Studies of innate immune responses to pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis have shown that pathogen-recognition receptor-mediated activation of localized vitamin D metabolism and signaling is a key event associated with infection. Vitamin D, acting in an intracrine fashion, is able to induce expression of antibacterial proteins and enhance the environment in which they function. The net effect of these actions is to support increased bacterial killing in a variety of cell types. The efficacy of such a response is highly dependent on vitamin D status; in other words, the availability of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D for intracrine conversion to active 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D by the enzyme 25-hydroxyvitamin D-1α-hydroxylase. The potential importance of this mechanism as a determinant of human disease is underlined by increasing awareness of vitamin D insufficiency across the globe. This Review will explore the molecular and cellular systems associated with antibacterial responses to vitamin D in different tissues and possible consequences of such a response for the prevention and treatment of human immune disorders.

Key Points

  • Nonclassical effects of vitamin D have been recognized for many years, but only in the past 5 years have these effects been accepted as an important component of vitamin D physiology

  • Immune cells, such as monocytes and macrophages, contain all the machinery required to synthesize and respond to active vitamin D, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, and this machinery is enhanced by challenge to the immune system

  • 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D stimulates innate immune antibacterial activity in a variety of cell types by increasing production of antimicrobial factors and by enhancing mechanisms associated with autophagy

  • Vitamin D insufficiency is now a global health issue, even in developed countries

  • Vitamin D insufficiency may compromise antibacterial activity and increase the risk of infectious diseases; vitamin D may also regulate innate immune responses in noninfectious settings

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Figure 1: Vitamin-D-induced cathelicidin expression and monocyte bacterial killing.
Figure 2: Cooperative nuclear factor κB signaling enhances vitamin-D-induced β-defensin 4A and monocyte bacterial killing.

Change history

  • 25 May 2011

    In the online and print versions of this article initially published, the published online date was 25 January 2010. The published online date should have been 25 January 2011. The error has been corrected for the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

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Hewison, M. Antibacterial effects of vitamin D. Nat Rev Endocrinol 7, 337–345 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2010.226

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