Authors:
Hart PH, Gorman S
Authors notes:
Handbook of vitamin D in human health. Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Publishers; 2013. p. 227-40
Keywords:
Vitamin D, multiple sclerosis, allergic asthma, type 1 diabetes, immunotherapy latitude gradient
Abstract:
A greater incidence of disease for individuals living at higher latitude away from the equator has been reported for chronic immune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, allergic asthma and type 1 diabetes.
Lower circulating levels of Vitamin D have also been associated with increased prevalence of these diseases.
As humans obtain more than 80% of their vitamin D by exposure of skin to the ultraviolet B component of sunlight, it has been proposed that the two observations are linked.
In this chapter, evidence for and evidence against the involvement of vitamin D in the immunoregulatory properties of UV radiation is presented.