Vitamin D status and antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin (LL-37) concentrations in patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of LL-37 (cathelicidin), published as a randomized controlled trial.

The primary objective of the study was to evaluate the relation between vitamin D nutriture, serum LL-37 concentrations, and tuberculosis by using samples stored in the Tuberculosis Trials Consortium serum repository.

Why It Was Studied

Vitamin D insufficiency is common in industrialized and developing nations.

Laboratory studies provided a mechanism for this link on the basis of findings that vitamin D metabolites regulate the expression of cathelicidin (LL-37), which is an endogenous antimicrobial peptide with activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 95 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

The researchers measured 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and LL-37 concentrations in 95 serum specimens from patients with culture-confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis and correlated these concentrations to clinical and demographic variables.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got LL-37 (cathelicidin) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Analysis of Variance, Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides, Black People, Cathelicidins, Life Style, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Prevalence.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of LL-37 (cathelicidin) in 95 patients.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 7 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2010 (The American journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in United States.

More context: the LL-37 (cathelicidin) compound page, all human trials.