Winter cholecalciferol supplementation at 55°N has little effect on markers of innate immune defense in healthy children aged 4-8 years: a secondary analysis from a randomized controlled trial.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The researchers explored the effect of winter cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) supplementation on innate immune markers in healthy Danish children (55°N).

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as young children and children, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

As a double-blind Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc could be set against what happens without it.

Cheek mucosal swabs, blood samples, and questionnaires on acute respiratory infections the previous month were collected at baseline and endpoint.

Innate immune markers were measured as secondary outcomes including in vivo oral mucosal gene expression of calprotectin (S100A9), lipocalin-2 (LCN2), beta-defensin-4 (DEFB4), interleukin-8 (IL-8), viperin (RSAD2), and the cathelicidin-antimicrobial-peptide (CAMP); ex vivo whole-blood lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced cathelicidin, IL-8, and IL-6; and plasma cathelicidin, together with serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D].

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Biomarkers, Cholecalciferol, Dietary Supplements, Immunity, Innate, Seasons and Vitamin D.

Author keywords: Antimicrobial peptides, Children, Cytokines, Innate immune function and Randomized controlled trial.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2019 (European journal of nutrition), a journal based in Germany.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.