[decimon]

Model of the Findings: Naïve T Cells Do not Express Vitamin D Receptor nor Plc-Gamma1

Caption: When the naïve T cell recognizes foreign molecules with its T cell receptor (TCR) it sends activation signals (1) to the VDR gene. The VDR gene now starts the production of VDR (2). VDR binds vitamin D in the T cell (3) and becomes activated. Vitamin D bound to activated VDR goes back into the cell nucleus and activates the gene for PLC-gamma1 (5). PLC-gamma1 is produced (6) and the T cells can get started.

Credit: Professor of Immunology, Carsten Geisler

Usage Restrictions: This image and all other graphic or textual content related to the press release is embargoed until March 7, 1800 London Time, 1300 US Eastern Standard Time

Related news release: Vitamin D crucial to activating immune defenses

[decimon]

D Dane defense ping.

[James C. Bennett]

Question is, is food-additive Vit D as effective as skin-produced Vit D?

[MozarkDawg]

Most Vitamin D is produced as a natural byproduct of the skin's exposure to sunlight.

All the scare stuff over skin cancer, people have been slathering on the sunscreen to the detriment of Vitamin D absorption -- an endocrinologist told me several years ago, ten minutes a day out in the fresh air and sunshine is sufficient to proper D absorption and will not be enough to endanger one or damage skin.

Get outside, people.

[waus]

Mercola has an entire section devoted to vitamin D information:

http://vitamind.mercola.com/

[denydenydeny]

It should have been the most obvious thing in the world.

For the longest time knew two salient facts seemingly at odds with each other:

A) Colds and flu are not caused by outside temperature but by microbes.

B) And yet there is a “cold and flu season” which occurs exclusively in the colder months of the year.

It was a logical paradox that the medical community seemed to shrug their shoulders over. Scientists are not supposed to be Walter Cronkite: “That’s the way it is” is not a sufficient explanation for anything. There had to be a reason.

Why I think it took so long for them to come to the conclusion was the medical and scientific community’s reluctance to look for nutritional solutions for any disease. But the conclusion is inescapable: We are out in the sun far less during the colder months, and the sun is less intense in those months, and the reduced amounts of Vitamin D make all the difference in whether we get sick or not. It’s so simple it should have been obvious all along.

[DvdMom]

Smokin’ Joe I pinged your list and some other freepers to a new different Vitamin D Article ...

thanks freepers decimon & freeper Smokin’ Joe :)

[A CA Guy]

D3 in particular.

[PapaBear3625]

The T cells in your immune system also go after cancer cells

[neverdem]

"No definitive studies have been carried out for the optimal daily dosage of vitamin D but as a large proportion of the population have very low concentrations of vitamin D in the blood, a number of experts recommend between 25-50mg micrograms a day."

That's 1000 - 2000 International Units of vitamin D3.

This is one reason that I'm wary of press releases besides no byline. They tend to be written by folks with little scientific education which can cause confusion, especially with abbreviations.

The abbreviation for milligram is mg. The abbreviation for microgram is mcg. Sometimes you'll find microgram written as µg. One thousand micrograms equals one milligram. One thousand milligrams equals one gram. The abbreviation for micro is called mu, and it looks like a funny looking u as above. Here's a link to the Greek alphabet.

Here's the abstract which uses the Greek letter pronounced "gamma," subtyped '1,' for a type of Phospholipase C isozyme, i.e. one of a number of different enzymes that catalyze the same biochemical reaction:

Vitamin D controls T cell antigen receptor signaling and activation of human T cells

Phospholipase C (PLC) isozymes are key signaling proteins downstream of many extracellular stimuli. Here we show that naive human T cells had very low expression of PLC-γ1 and that this correlated with low T cell antigen receptor (TCR) responsiveness in naive T cells. However, TCR triggering led to an upregulation of ~75-fold in PLC-γ1 expression, which correlated with greater TCR responsiveness. Induction of PLC-γ1 was dependent on vitamin D and expression of the vitamin D receptor (VDR). Naive T cells did not express VDR, but VDR expression was induced by TCR signaling via the alternative mitogen-activated protein kinase p38 pathway. Thus, initial TCR signaling via p38 leads to successive induction of VDR and PLC-γ1, which are required for subsequent classical TCR signaling and T cell activation.

Vitamin D as acquired from the diet or produced in the skin is biologically inactive. It must be metabolized by the liver to produce 25-hydroxyvitamin D3. However, this compound is also biologically inactive under physiological circumstances and must be activated by the kidney to produce the final vitamin D hormone, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3.

I thought in people with healthy kidneys that it would make no difference if they took either vitamin D2 or vitamin D3. This paper says otherwise.

Vitamin D2 Is Much Less Effective than Vitamin D3 in Humans

[reagan_fanatic]

I take a multivitamin with D every day, and have for about the last 20 years.

I do wonder, though, just how much is utilized in the body and how much just gets peed and pooped away.