Vitamin A deficiency impairs vaccine-elicited gastrointestinal immunity.

ABSTRACT: Vitamin A deficiency is highly prevalent in much of the developing world, where vaccination programs are of paramount importance to public health. However, the impact of vitamin A deficiency on the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of vaccines has not been defined previously. In this article, we show that the vitamin A metabolite retinoic acid is critical for trafficking of vaccine-elicited T lymphocytes to the gastrointestinal mucosa and for vaccine protective efficacy in mice. Moderate vitamin A deficiency abrogated Ag-specific T lymphocyte trafficking to the gastrointestinal tract, gastrointestinal cellular immune responses, and protection against a mucosal challenge following immunization with a recombinant adenovirus vaccine vector. Oral vitamin A supplementation as well as retin

SUBMITTER: Kaufman DR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3150351 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature