Vitamin D Status and Immune Health: Determinants, Mechanisms, and Clinical Implications
A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutritional Immunology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 October 2026 | Viewed by 369
Editor
Interests: vitamin D; nutritional immunology; micronutrients; immune function; inflammation; microbiome; gut-brain axis; chronic disease; public health nutrition; health disparities; clinical research; translational medicine; lifestyle medicine; dietary supplements
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Vitamin D, a critical micronutrient, plays a central role in immune regulation, influencing both innate and adaptive immune responses. Despite extensive research, important gaps remain in defining optimal vitamin D status, understanding variability across populations, and clarifying its role in infection risk, immune-mediated conditions, and chronic disease. Vitamin D status is shaped by a complex interplay of determinants, including ultraviolet-B exposure (latitude, season, and lifestyle), skin pigmentation, age, adiposity, dietary intake, supplementation practices, and alterations in absorption and metabolism. In addition, lifestyle co-factors—particularly physical activity—may act as important co-modifiers of vitamin D status and immune function, reflecting integrated effects across musculoskeletal, metabolic, and immune systems.
This Special Issue aims to advance the field of human nutrition by bringing together original research, clinical studies, and evidence syntheses focused on vitamin D status and immune health. Areas of interest include dietary sources and supplementation strategies, biomarkers and methods for assessing vitamin D status, mechanistic and nutrigenomic insights, and interactions with lifestyle factors such as physical activity. Submissions addressing methodological rigor, reproducibility, and population-level implications, including health disparities, are particularly encouraged.
Dr. Leigh A. Frame
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- vitamin D
- vitamin D deficiency
- cholecalciferol
- ergocalciferols
- nutritional status
- 25-hydroxyvitamin D 3
- dietary supplements
- diet
- clinical trials as topic
- intervention studies
- immune system
- inflammation
- infection
- chronic disease
- public health
- health status disparities
- motor activity
- exercise
- obesity
- adiposity
- malabsorption syndromes
- ultraviolet rays
- seasons
- geographic locations
- nutrigenomics
- translational medical research
- precision nutrition
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