Vitamin A (VA) deficiency is one of the most common malnutrition conditions. Recent reports showed that VA plays an important role in the immune balance; lack of VA could result in enhanced type 2 immune response characterized by increased type 2 cytokine production and type 2 innate lymphoid cell infiltration and activation. Type 2 immune response plays protective role in anti-infection but plays pathological role in asthmatic disease. In order to investigate the role of VA in the asthmatic disease, we used ovalbumin-induced asthma murine model and observed the pathological changes between mouse-received VA-deficient and VA-sufficient diets. We also measured the type 2 cytokine expressions to reveal the potential mechanism. Our results showed that VA deficiency exacerbates ovalbumin-induced lung inflammation and type 2 cytokine productions. Thus, VA deficiency, or malnutrition in further extent, may contribute to the increasing prevalence of asthma.
Keywords: asthma; cytokines; inflammation; vitamin A.