ArticlePloS one2011
BCG vaccination: a role for vitamin D?
Article in PloS one, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- A prospective trial investigating the role of Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D in diagnosis and prognosis of bladder cancer.PloS one · 2022Trial
- Supplementing 25-Hydroxy-Vitamin DAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Vitamin D as an Adjuvant Immune Enhancer to SARS-Cov-2 Vaccine.Current microbiology · 2025Article
- The osteo-metabolic phenotype of COVID-19: an update.Endocrine · 2022Review
- Effectiveness of ComirnatyVaccines · 2022Article
- Article
- Progressive Host-Directed Strategies to Potentiate BCG Vaccination Against Tuberculosis.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Review
- The Immunomodulatory Function of Vitamin D, with Particular Reference to SARS-CoV-2.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2021Review
- On BCG Vaccine Protection from COVID-19: A Review.SN comprehensive clinical medicine · 2021Review
- Global prevalence and disease burden of vitamin D deficiency: a roadmap for action in low- and middle-income countries.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2018Article
- Risk factors for diphtheria outbreak in children aged 1-10 years in East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia.F1000Research · 2018Article
- Can we translate vitamin D immunomodulating effect on innate and adaptive immunity to vaccine response?Nutrients · 2015Review
- "Let there be light": the role of vitamin D in the immune response to vaccines.Expert review of vaccines · 2015Review
- Article
- Myeloid derived suppressor cells are present at high frequency in neonates and suppress in vitro T cell responses.PloS one · 2014Article
- Serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D and immunoglobulins in an older Swiss cohort: results of the Senior Labor Study.BMC medicine · 2013Article
- How important is vitamin D in preventing infections?Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA · 2013Review
- Do vitamin D plasma levels impact vaccine response in children with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome?Pediatric nephrology (Berlin, Germany) · 2012Article
- Vitamin D in early childhood and the effect on immunity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis.Clinical & developmental immunology · 2012Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBCG vaccination is administered in infancy in most countries with the aim of providing protection against tuberculosis. There is increasing interest in the role of vitamin D in immunity to tuberculosis. This study objective was to determine if there was an association between circulating 25(OH)D concentrations and BCG vaccination status and cytokine responses following BCG vaccination in infants.
methodsBlood samples were collected from UK infants who were vaccinated with BCG at 3 (n = 47) and 12 (n = 37) months post BCG vaccination. These two time-points are denoted as time-point 1 and time-point 2. Two blood samples were also collected from age-matched unvaccinated infants (n = 32 and 28 respectively), as a control group. Plasma vitamin D concentrations (25(OH)D) were measured by radio-immunoassay. The cytokine IFNγ was measured in supernatants from diluted whole blood stimulated with M.tuberculosis (M.tb) PPD for 6 days.
results58% of infants had some level of hypovitaminosis (25(OH)D <30 ng/ml) at time-point 1, and this increased to 97% 9 months later. BCG vaccinated infants were almost 6 times (CI: 1.8-18.6) more likely to have sufficient vitamin D concentrations than unvaccinated infants at time-point 1, and the association remained strong after controlling for season of blood collection, ethnic group and sex. Among vaccinees, there was also a strong inverse association between IFNγ response to M.tb PPD and vitamin D concentration, with infants with higher vitamin D concentrations having lower IFNγ responses.
conclusionsVitamin D may play an immuno-regulatory role following BCG vaccination. The increased vitamin D concentrations in BCG vaccinated infants could have important implications: vitamin D may play a role in immunity induced by BCG vaccination and may contribute to non-specific effects observed following BCG vaccination.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.