Vitamin D Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Vitamin D, including details on sources, melanin, benefits, deficiency, supplements, calcium absorption.

1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 induces splenocyte apoptosis and enhances BALB/c mice sensitivity to toxoplasmosis.

Rajapakse R, Mousli M, Pfaff AW, Uring-Lambert B, Marcellin L, Bronner C, Jeanblanc M, Villard O, Letscher-Bru V, Klein JP, Candolfi E

Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale UMR-S 392, Institut de Parasitologie et de Pathologie Tropicale, Faculté de Médicine, 3 rue de Koeberlé, 67000 Strasbourg, France.

The hormonal form of Vitamin D, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, is well known for its immunosuppressive, anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic activities. In the present work, we studied the effect of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 on Toxoplasma gondii-infected mice. We observed that 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 reduces the survival rate of infected mice by up to 37% at day 10 post-infection compared to untreated infected mice (P < 0.0001). IFN-gamma and IL-12p40 levels were significantly reduced by 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 in infected mice sera indicating an inhibition of Th-1-type cytokines. CD4+ T lymphocyte and splenocyte counts were also reduced following 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 treatment and a marked induction of apoptosis, accompanied with down-regulation of the anti-apoptotic proteins Bcl-2 and Bcl-X(L), was observed. The above results indicate that 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 induces splenocyte apoptosis and enhances host susceptibility to toxoplasmosis.

Published 8 August 2005 in J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol, 96(2): 179-85.
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