Effect of Dietary Vitamin D3 on T Helper-Related Activities of Lupus-Prompt New Zealand Black/New Zealand White F1 Mice

 BEI-CHANG YANG*, CHOUNG-WEN LIU AND CHUN-KEUNG YU

 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, 138 Sheng-Li Road, Tainan, 70428 Taiwan, Republic of China

ABSTRACT

   We investigated the effect of dietary vitamin D3 on T helper-related activities and progress of lupus in NZB/NZW Fl mice. Mice were fed with 0.4 or 2μg vitamin D3 dissolved in 50μL olive oil every other day. Expression of T cell-related cytokine genes including those of IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12 and IFN-γ was monitored during the disease course by semiquantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). In addition, total serum IgG1 and IgG2a and anti-dsDNA antibody were measured. We observed a prolonged survival of mice receiving 2μg of vitamin D3 as compared with control mice. However, vitamin D3 did not significantly affect the anti-DNA antibody formation, IgG subtype proportion, or cytokine expression profile.

Key words: vitamin D3, cytokines, lupus