Vitamin D and cathelicidin assessment in infection-induced asthma in Egyptian children

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Vitamin D deficiency was hypothesized to increase the risk of respiratory infections and asthma exacerbation through a reduced production of cathelicidin, a multifunctional anti-microbial peptide essential for normal immune responses to infections. Aims Evaluation of vitamin D status and its impact upon cathelicidin in children with infection-induced asthma through assessment of their serum levels. Patients and methods The study included 65 infection-induced asthmatic children aged 9.32 ± 2.35 years (33 in exacerbation and 32 severity matched in remission) and 25 healthy controls. All children were subjected to history taking, physical examination, pulmonary function tests, CBC, and assessment of serum levels of vitamin D (25(OH)D) and cathelicidin using ELISA. Results All asthmatics and controls were deficient in vitamin D (≤ 20 ng/ml), and no significant difference was found between controls (10.77 ± 5.6 ng/ml), remission group (9.8 ± 4.89 ng/ml), and exacerbation group (8.49 ± 5 ng/ml), p = 0.29. Cathelicidin was higher in the control group (7.69 ± 4.3 ng/ml) compared to that in the remission ones (6.88 ± 3.66 ng/ml), but not significant, while it was significantly higher in the exacerbation group (9.78 ± 3.03 ng/ml) compared to that in the remission ones (p = 0.01). No significant difference between the three groups regarding percentage having vitamin D level < 10 ng/ml (p = 0.3). There was no correlation between serum cathelicidin and vitamin D levels in either asthmatics or controls. Both levels had no correlation with spirometry indices and no relation to frequency of exacerbations. Conclusion Vitamin D deficiency cannot explain infection-induced asthma. Cathelicidin elevation in exacerbations seems to be independent of vitamin D.

Keywords

• Vitamin D
• Cathelicidin
• Infection-induced asthma