Effect of vitamin D3 supplementation on cellular immunity and inflammatory markers in COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU
Mikhail V Bychinin, Tatiana V Klypa, Irina A Mandel, Gaukhar M Yusubalieva, Vladimir P Baklaushev, Nadezhda A Kolyshkina, Aleksandr V Troitsky
Scientific Reports, doi:10.1038/s41598-022-22045-y
Vitamin D as an immunomodulator has not been studied in patients with severe COVID-19. This study aimed to estimate the efficacy of vitamin D3 supplementation on cellular immunity and inflammatory markers in patients with COVID-19 admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). A single-center, doubleblind, randomized, placebo-controlled pilot trial was conducted (N = 110). Patients were randomly assigned to receive a weekly oral dose of 60,000 IU of vitamin D3 followed by daily maintenance doses of 5000 IU (n = 55) or placebo (n = 55). Primary outcomes were lymphocyte counts, natural killer (NK) and natural killer T (NKT) cell counts, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and serum levels of inflammatory markers on 7th day of treatment. On day 7, patients in the vitamin D3 group displayed significantly higher NK and NKT cell counts and NLR than those in the placebo group did. The mortality rate (37% vs 50%, P = 0.16), need for mechanical ventilation (63% vs 69%, P = 0.58), incidence of nosocomial infection (60% vs 41%, P = 0.05) did not significantly differ between groups. Vitamin D3 supplementation, compared with placebo, significantly increased lymphocyte counts, but did not translate into reduced mortality in ICU. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05092698.
Author contributions M.V.B., T.V.K., V.P.B. and A.V.T. designed research; M.V.B. conducted research and wrote the main manuscript text; T.V.K. and I.A.M. edited the paper; N.A.K. and G.M.Y. performed laboratory analyses. I.A.M. analyzed data and prepared figures; M.V.B. had primary responsibility for final content. All authors reviewed the manuscript.
Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests.
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