Association between vitamin D deficiency and allergic symptom in pregnant women

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 14; no. 4; p. e0214797
• Main Authors: Kanatani, Kumiko T., Adachi, Yuichi, Hamazaki, Kei, Onishi, Kazunari, Go, Tohshin, Hirabayashi, Kyoko, Watanabe, Motonobu, Sato, Keiko, Kurozawa, Youichi, Inadera, Hidekuni, Oyama, Hiroshi, Nakayama, Takeo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 10.04.2019; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Allergy; Biology and life sciences; Children; Cohort Studies; Complications and side effects; Demographic aspects; Dendritic cells; Dust - immunology; Earth Sciences; Ecology and Environmental Sciences; Female; Health aspects; Humans; Hypersensitivity - blood; Hypersensitivity - complications; Hypersensitivity - immunology; Japan; Medicine and health sciences; Middle Aged; Physical sciences; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications - blood; Pregnancy Complications - immunology; Pregnant women; Risk Factors; Surveys and Questionnaires; Vitamin D; Vitamin D - analogs & derivatives; Vitamin D - blood; Vitamin D deficiency; Vitamin D Deficiency - blood; Vitamin D Deficiency - complications; Vitamin D Deficiency - immunology; Vitamins; Young Adult; Japan
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214797

Vitamin D has been reported to affect both innate, and acquired immunity with immune cells such as dendritic cells having the vitamin D receptors. The co-occurrence of the high prevalence of allergic diseases and vitamin D deficiency globally documented in recent decades, has prompted a hypothesis on whether there is a reasonable association between them. To investigate the association between serum vitamin D deficiency and allergic symptoms. Historical cohort. On a cohort study for the association between desert dust exposure and allergic symptoms in 3,327 pregnant women during spring and fall in 2011-2013 in Japan conducted as an adjunct study to the Japan Environment and Children's Study, we promptly acquired subjects' daily allergic symptom scores by sending a web-based questionnaire to each participant on some days. Of the 29,434 answers provided by 3,327 participating pregnant women, we extracted 13,356 answers from 1,475 pregnant women that were answered within a 3-month period after blood samplings. And we measured 25(OH)D levels on those samples to investigate the association between their vitamin D deficiency (serum 25(OH)D < 20ng/mL) and the occurrence of any allergic symptom (allergic symptom score> 0) within 3 months. Serum 25(OH)D was less than 20ng/mL in 1,233 of 1,745 samples (70.7%). The adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for occurrence of any allergic symptom in deficient cases compared with non-deficient cases was 1.33 (95% CI: 1.07-1.64, p = 0.01). Further, vitamin D deficiency significantly enhanced the risk increase at desert dust events and at pollen exposure (p-values for interaction <0.1). We confirmed the association between serum vitamin D deficiency and allergic symptoms in Japanese pregnant women.