Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2016 Aug 9;15(1):75.
doi: 10.1186/s12937-016-0194-5.

Prenatal high-dose vitamin D3 supplementation has balanced effects on cord blood Th1 and Th2 responses

Evana Akhtar  1 , Akhirunnesa Mily  1 , Ahsanul Haq  1 , Abdullah Al-Mahmud  2 , Shams El-Arifeen  2 , Abdullah Hel Baqui  3 , Daniel E Roth  4 , Rubhana Raqib  5
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Prenatal high-dose vitamin D3 supplementation has balanced effects on cord blood Th1 and Th2 responses

Evana Akhtar et al. Nutr J. .

Abstract

Background: Antenatal vitamin D3 (vitD3) supplementation significantly increases maternal and neonatal 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) concentration, yet the effect of an improvement in maternal-fetal vitamin D status on the neonatal immune response is unclear.

Method: To assess the effect of prenatal vitD3 supplementation on cord blood T cell function, healthy pregnant Bangladeshi women (n = 160) were randomized to receive either oral 35,000 IU/week vitD3 or placebo from 26 to 29 weeks of gestation to delivery. In a subset of participants (n = 80), cord blood mononuclear cells (CBMC) were cultured, non-adherent lymphocytes were isolated to assess T cell cytokine responses to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and anti-CD3/anti-CD28 (iCD3/iCD28), measured by multiplex assay. In 12 participants, lymphocyte gene expression profiles were analyzed by PCR array.

Result: In supplemented group, increased concentrations of IL-10 (P < 0.000) and TNF-α (P = 0.05) with iCD3/iCD28 stimulation and IFN-γ (p = 0.05) with PHA stimulation were obtained compared to placebo group. No differences in the gene expression profile were noted between the two groups. However, PHA stimulation significantly induced the expression of genes encoding Th1 and Th2 cytokines and down-regulated a number of genes involved in T-cell development, proliferation and differentiation of B cells, signal transduction pathway, transcriptional regulation and pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) in the vitamin D group (vitD group).

Conclusion: Third-trimester high-dose vitD3 supplementation in healthy pregnant women had balanced effects on biomarkers of cord blood Th1 and Th2 responses.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov ( NCT01126528 ).

Keywords: Cord blood; Cytokines; Neonates; Pregnant women; T lymphocytes; Vitamin D3.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Fold change of gene expression level after stimulation with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) in the vitD group. Genes increased or decreased in the stimulated cells compared to the unstimulated cells by ≥2 were showed in the figure. Among 84 genes of T and B cell pathway. a only 8 genes were upregulated, while (b) 21 genes were down regulated. Results were from 6 participants
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Anderson LN, Chen Y, Omand JA, Birken CS, Parkin PC, To T, Maguire JL, Collaboration TAK: Vitamin D exposure during pregnancy, but not early childhood, is associated with risk of childhood wheezing. J Dev Orig Health Dis. 2015;6(4):308–16. - PubMed
    1. Christesen HT, Elvander C, Lamont RF, Jorgensen JS. The impact of vitamin D in pregnancy on extraskeletal health in children: a systematic review. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 2012;91(12):1368–1380. doi: 10.1111/aogs.12006. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Devereux G, Litonjua AA, Turner SW, Craig LC, McNeill G, Martindale S, Helms PJ, Seaton A, Weiss ST. Maternal vitamin D intake during pregnancy and early childhood wheezing. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007;85(3):853–859. - PubMed
    1. Maslova E, Hansen S, Jensen CB, Thorne-Lyman AL, Strom M, Olsen SF. Vitamin D intake in mid-pregnancy and child allergic disease - a prospective study in 44,825 Danish mother-child pairs. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2013;13:199. doi: 10.1186/1471-2393-13-199. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Miyake Y, Sasaki S, Tanaka K, Hirota Y. Dairy food, calcium and vitamin D intake in pregnancy, and wheeze and eczema in infants. Eur Respir J. 2010;35(6):1228–1234. doi: 10.1183/09031936.00100609. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Associated data