This Vitamin Can Fight Bacterial Infections, Says New Study

A recent study conducted by the experts at Oregon state university has revealed yet another potential benefit of the sunshine vitamin which is renowned for its calcium absorption and inflammation-reducing properties.

They have developed a new mice model that has evaluated the potential of vitamin D and has reported that it can dramatically lower the disease-causing bacteria in skin wounds.

The researchers who sought to examine the role of the bioactive form of vitamin D’s antimicrobial property have found that cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide (CAMP) which is made by immune cells provides a barrier against bacterial infections.

A peptide is a compound comprising a couple of amino acids linked like a chain, and CAMP includes immune cells as well as certain other cells that offer a barrier against infections. The gene coding for CAMP is found in human beings as well as other primates. Certain mammals such as mice also possess a similar gene, Camp, but the sunshine vitamin does not trigger it.

To study the effect of how the sunshine vitamin works alongside CAMP to help thwart infections, the research team led by Adrian Gombart developed a mouse model that carried the CAMP gene. They believe that their novel model will be very useful as research into vitamin-D induced expression of CAMP progress and leads to non-pathogenic diseases including the inflammatory bowel disease, etc.

“Vitamin D3 regulates the expression of the CAMP, and Staphylococcus aureus is an important human pathogen that causes skin infections,” ktvz quoted Gombart, professor of biochemistry and biophysics in OSU’s College of Science and a principal investigator at the university’s Linus Pauling Institute. “With our mouse model, we showed that treating a skin wound infected with S. aureus with the bioactive form of vitamin D significantly reduced the number of bacteria in the wound.”

The findings of the study also revealed that the mice engineered with the human CAMP gene possessed higher resistance to gut infections and a bioactive form of the sunshine vitamin can be used to treat skin staph infections on their skin effectively.

Vitamin D is fat-soluble and present in very few dietary sources including fatty fish, beef liver, cheese, egg yolks, etc. Manufactured by the body when exposed to sunlight, the vitamin contributes to cell growth and neuromuscular functions.