Vitamin D and cathelicidin serum levels in children with infection induced asthma

Introduction: Vitamin D deficiency was hypothesized to increase the risk of respiratory infections and asthma exacerbations 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 & 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. Cathelcidin was higher in the control group (7.69±4.3 ng/ml) compared to 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 remission ones (p=0.01). No significant difference between the 3 groups regarding percentage having vitamin D level Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency cannot explain infection induced asthma. Cathelicidin elevation in exacerbations seems to be independent of vitamin D.