Vitamin D3 selectively and reversibly inhibits the migration of T helper cells into the central nervous system (CNS), according to findings from a new study. The authors said the findings could have significant implications for the use of vitamin D as an adjunctive therapy for immune-mediated diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS).
The study appeared online December 9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was authored by Anne R. Gocke, Ph.D., an assistant professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, along with colleagues (Grishkan et al., 2013). The authors described their study as "a systematic evaluation of the vitamin D effects on T lymphocytes at each step of their journey to the CNS."
Based mostly on epidemiologic and animal studies, it has been suspected for some time that high-dose vitamin D supplementation might have positive effects on the course of disease in patients with MS. In fact, a clinical study is currently underway at Johns Hopkins looking more closely at that hypothesis.
The study appeared online December 9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was authored by Anne R. Gocke, Ph.D., an assistant professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, along with colleagues (Grishkan et al., 2013). The authors described their study as "a systematic evaluation of the vitamin D effects on T lymphocytes at each step of their journey to the CNS."
Based mostly on epidemiologic and animal studies, it has been suspected for some time that high-dose vitamin D supplementation might have positive effects on the course of disease in patients with MS. In fact, a clinical study is currently underway at Johns Hopkins looking more closely at that hypothesis.
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