Why Vitamin D Deficiency Can Raise Autoimmune Disease Risk
The body can naturally produce vitamin D when skin is exposed to sunlight, but this process declines significantly in winter. There also aren't many food sources of vitamin D. But vitamin D is very important to the body.
The vitamin D receptor can be found in many different tissues, and while the vitamin's roles in bone health and calcium level maintenance are well known, less is understood about its other functions, such as how it relates to immunity. Several immune cells have vitamin D receptors and gene activity in those cells can be affected by the vitamin. Low levels of vitamin D have also been associated with a variety of autoimmune disorders including inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis vulgaris, rheumatoid arthritis, and type 1 diabetes. Studies have also shown that vitamin D supplements can help lower the risk of autoimmune disease.
A new study reported in Science Advances has provided new insights into the link between vitamin D and immunology. This work has shown that vitamin D deficiency in childhood may increase aging in the thymus. The thymus is crucial to immune function, and helps teach immune cells how to differentiate between cells of the self, and foreign invaders that must be eliminated. When immune cells cannot make this important distinction, they may begin to attack the body's own cells and tissues, to cause autoimmune disease.
"An aging thymus leads to a 'leaky' immune system," said senior study author John White, a Professor and Chair at McGill University. "This means the thymus becomes less effective at filtering out immune cells that could mistakenly attack healthy tissues, increasing the risk of autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes. Our findings bring new clarity to this connection and could lead to new strategies for preventing autoimmune diseases."
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