Dietary Vitamin D Increases Percentages and Function of Regulatory T Cells in the Skin-Draining Lymph Nodes and Suppresses Dermal Inflammation

Figure 4

Dietary vitamin D enhanced the activity of Foxp3+ cells at multiple immune sites. Female offspring born to vitamin D₃- (vitD-) replete (+) or vitamin D₃-deficient (−) DO11.10 mothers were maintained on vitamin D-replete or vitamin D-deficient diets (resp.) until 8 weeks of age. CD4+CD25+(Foxp3+) cells were purified from (a) SDLN, (b) ADLN, (c) MLN, (d) spleens, or (e) blood of mice and cocultured with lymph node responder cells from DO11.10 mice at ratios of 1 : 8, 1 : 16, or 1 : 32 and OVA peptide. IL-2 levels in the coculture supernatants were measured after 96 h. The broken lines indicate the levels of IL-2 measured in supernatant of responder cells cultured with OVA peptide alone. Data are shown as mean ± SEM for 6 wells/treatment, representative of two experiments; .

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