High-level dietary vitamin A enhances T-helper type 2 cytokine production and secretory immunoglobulin A response to influenza A virus infection in BALB/c mice
Dm. Cui et al., High-level dietary vitamin A enhances T-helper type 2 cytokine production and secretory immunoglobulin A response to influenza A virus infection in BALB/c mice, J NUTR, 130(5), 2000, pp. 1132-1139
Vitamin A supplementation during acute pneumonia has not improved recovery
in most human clinical trials. We hypothesize that high vitamin A intake ma
y decrease the production of T-helper type-1 (Th1) cytokines and thereby in
hibit antiviral responses. Such decreases might impair recovery from viral
respiratory infections, We thus examined the effect of three interventions
on viral pneumonia: 1) a high level vitamin A [250,000 IU/kg diet or 75,000
retinol equivalents (RE)/kg], or 2) control diet (4000 IU/kg diet or 1200
RE/kg) given before and during infection, and 3) initiating the high level
diet upon infection to simulate the adjuvant therapy used in clinical trial
s. No difference was seen among the interventions in severity of disease (w
eight loss, lung virus titers and survival). However, both the high level d
iet group and the group in which vitamin A was increased at the time of inf
ection had greater salivary immunoglobulin (Ig)A responses (geometric means
, 166 and 105 mu g/L, respectively) than did the control group (59 mu g/L)
(P = 0.0019). In contrast, the serum IgG response was higher in the control
group (324 +/- 158 mg/L) than in the high level group (225 +/- 95 mg/L) (P
= 0.028), although it did not differ from the group in which the diet was
changed upon infection (230 +/- 163 mg/L) (P = 0.084). The production of in
terferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), a Th1 cytokine, was lower in the high level die
t group (median, 0.153 mu g/L) compared with the control group (median, 0.8
39 mu g/L) (P = 0.014), whereas the production of interleukin-10 (IL-10), a
Th2 cytokine, was higher with the high level diet (median, 0.304 mu g/L) t
han with the control (median, 0.126 mu g/L) (P = 0.022). This change in the
Th1/Th2 pattern was not sufficient to affect recovery from viral pneumonia
but may account for the increased IgA and decreased IgG responses seen wit
h high level dietary vitamin A in this study. These data reinforce the lack
of utility of vitamin A in treating acute pneumonia in children and sugges
t that high dose vitamin A supplements may enhance Th2-mediated immune resp
onses, which are particularly beneficial in the case of extracellular bacte
rial and parasitic infections and IgA-mediated responses to mucosal infecti
ons.