Hormone plays surprise role in fighting skin infections

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are molecules produced in the skin to fend
off infection-causing microbes. Vitamin D has been credited with a role
in their production and in the body's overall immune response, but
scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
say a hormone previously associated only with maintaining calcium
homeostasis and bone health is also critical, boosting AMP expression
when dietary vitamin D levels are inadequate.
The finding, published in the May 23, 2012 online issue of Science Translational Medicine,
more fully explains how the immune system functions in different
situations and presents a new avenue for treating infections, perhaps as
an alternative to current antibiotic therapies.
The immunological benefits of vitamin D are controversial. In
cultured cell studies, the fat-soluble vitamin provides strong
immunological benefits, but in repeated studies with humans and animal
models, results have been inconsistent: People with low levels of
dietary vitamin D do not suffer more infections. For reasons unknown,
their immune response generally remains strong, undermining the touted
immunological strength of vitamin D.

Read the whole story: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120523145652.htm