Trial reportEuropean journal of nutrition2014
High-dose cholecalciferol supplementation significantly increases peripheral CD4⁺ Tregs in healthy adults without negatively affecting the frequency of other immune cells.
Trial report in European journal of nutrition, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 78 citations in OpenAlex.
- Vitamin D status, supplementation, and multiple sclerosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Pooled it
- Meta-Analysis of European Clinical Trials Characterizing the Healthy-Adult Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D Response to Vitamin D Supplementation.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Effect of cholecalciferol on immune and vascular function in non-diabetic chronic kidney disease.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Trial
- Low-Dose Vitamin DFrontiers in immunology · 2021Trial
- Vitamin DIn vivo (Athens, Greece)Trial
- The Impact of Vitamin D in the Prevention of Influenza, COVID-19, and Dengue: A Review.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Association of Vitamin D Status with Immune Markers in a Cohort of Healthy Adults.The Journal of nutrition · 2025Article
- Relationship between Circulating 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and Metabolic Syndrome in Chinese Adults: A Large Nationwide Longitudinal Study.Nutrients · 2024Article
- Transcriptomics identifies blunted immunomodulatory effects of vitamin D in people with multiple sclerosis.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Hypovitaminosis D in persons with Down syndrome and autism spectrum disorder.Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders · 2023Article
- Natural Ingredients to Improve Immunity.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre clinical trial of AZD1656 in diabetic patients hospitalised with COVID-19: The ARCADIA Trial - implications for therapeutic immune modulation.EClinicalMedicine · 2022Article
- Analysis of the Seasonal Fluctuation of γδ T Cells and Its Potential Relation with Vitamin DCells · 2022Article
- Pre- and Postnatal Vitamin D Status and Allergy Outcomes in Early Childhood.Biomedicines · 2022Review
- Influence of vitamin D supplementation on immune function of healthy aging people: A pilot randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Article
- High Serum Vitamin D Concentrations, InducedFrontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- Role of vitamin D in regulating COVID-19 severity-An immunological perspective.Journal of leukocyte biology · 2021Review
- Unconventional Therapy with IgY in a Psoriatic Mouse Model Targeting Gut Microbiome.Journal of personalized medicine · 2021Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRegulatory T cells (Tregs) play a central role in the maintenance of self-tolerance. Animal and in vitro studies suggest that vitamin D is involved in reducing the risk of autoimmunity by modulating Tregs.
methodsIn a double-blind, placebo controlled study in 60 healthy volunteers, we assessed the effect of a 12-week high-dose oral cholecalciferol supplementation (140,000 IU/month) on the number and function of CD4(pos)CD25(high)FoxP3(pos)CD127(dim) Tregs. We also assessed the clinical safety of the supplementation and the effect on the frequency of other immune cells such as monocytes, dendritic cells, natural killer cells, natural killer T cells, B cells and subgroups of T cells. We also tested the in vitro effect of cholecalciferol on Tregs in human cell cultures.
resultsBy using FACS analysis, ex vivo suppressive co-cultures and apoptosis assays, we were able to show that a cholecalciferol supplementation leads to significantly increased numbers of peripheral Tregs in vivo. Tregs function and the frequency of other immune cells remained unchanged, and no clinically relevant safety concerns were found. The in vitro exposure of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells to cholecalciferol also supported our in vivo findings.
conclusionsOur results indicate a substantial effect of a supplementation with inactive vitamin D on the immune system of healthy humans in vivo and provide a rationale for future studies to investigate the immunomodulatory effects of vitamin D in autoimmune diseases.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.