United States: As the experts note, vitamin D is essential in improving one’s general well-being, and now researchers have found two significant things concerning the lack of vitamin D during childhood, which could lead to some immune system glitches.
More about the news
Scientists from the faculty of McGill University in Canada decided to get a detailed look at mice who were genetically modified to lack the ability to synthesize vitamin D on their own.
They discovered that the thymus, a small organ that programs our immune system, ages earlier in these mice, meaning self-destructive immune cells can proliferate, sciencealert.com reported.
It is known that the thymus plays a crucial role in training the T cell alliance in our bodies, not annihilating healthy cells, and vitamin D plays a crucial role in this process as well.
More about the analysis
The mice were unable to synthesize vitamin D, and as a result, their thymus became much smaller and contained much fewer cells.
There were also shown biological indicators of early organ aging and reduced levels of an important autoimmune regulating factor.
This explains how a lack of vitamin D leads to reduced defense against autoimmune diseases, which are methods whereby the body’s immune system starts attacking its tissues or cells, causing health risks.
According to prior studies, intellectuals assume vitamin D is most relevant in children since the foundational T cell education in the thymus occurs till 20 years of age.
Most probably beyond a certain age, the advantages of vitamin D are not as apparent as we had thought, sciencealert.com reported.
Therefore, these findings were specifically found relevant to youngsters. As experts have shown, this has only been observed in mice yet; however, the thymus functions in humans in a similar way.
This seems to be a good reason to believe that they have the same biological processes at play in humans.
Moreover, experts are planning to look into how vitamin D affects the human thymus.