Maternal Vitamin D Level Is Associated with Viral Toll-Like Receptor Triggered IL-10 Response but Not the Risk of Infectious Diseases in Infancy

Abstract EN

Reports on the effect of prenatal vitamin D status on fetal immune development and infectious diseases in childhood are limited.

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of maternal and cord blood vitamin D level in TLR-related innate immunity and its effect on infectious outcome.

Maternal and cord blood 25 (OH)D level were examined from 372 maternal-neonatal pairs and their correlation with TLR-triggered TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-10 response at birth was assessed.

Clinical outcomes related to infection at 12 months of age were also evaluated.

The result showed that 75% of the pregnant mothers and 75.8% of the neonates were vitamin deficient.

There was a high correlation between maternal and cord 25(OH)D levels ( r = 0.67 , p < 0.001 ).

Maternal vitamin D level was inversely correlated with IL-10 response to TLR3 ( p = 0.004 ) and TLR7-8 stimulation ( p = 0.006 ).

However, none of the TLR-triggered cytokine productions were associated with cord 25(OH)D concentration.

There was no relationship between maternal and cord blood vitamin D status with infectious diseases during infancy.

In conclusion, our study had shown that maternal vitamin D, but not cord vitamin D level, was associated with viral TLR-triggered IL-10 response.