Smooth muscle abnormalities in developing airways may be overlooked factor in asthma. A team of Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) investigators led by Wellington V. Cardoso, MD, PhD, has found the first direct evidence of a link between prenatal vitamin A deficiency and postnatal airway hyperresponsiveness, a hallmark of asthma. 

The study, conducted in mice, shows that short–term deficit of this essential vitamin while the lung is forming can cause profound changes in the smooth muscle that surrounds the airways, causing the adult lungs to respond to environmental or pharmacological stimuli with excessive narrowing of airways. The findings were published online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. 

"Researchers have long wondered what makes some people more susceptible than others to developing asthma symptoms when exposed to the same stimulus," said Dr. Cardoso, senior author, director of the new Columbia Center for Human Development, and a faculty member in the Division of Pulmonary Allergy Clinical Care Medicine. "Our study suggests that the presence of structural and functional abnormalities in the lungs due to vitamin A deficiency during development is an important and underappreciated factor in this susceptibility."

Taken from EurekAlert!

The same form of Vitamin A used by teenagers to combat acne might offer benefits that are more than skin deep. That's because an international team of researchers have found that it may also help keep the immune system under control for people with autoimmune disorders or those who have received transplants. This finding was published in the February 2014 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. "The results will help us to use the different protocol of Treg induction for clinical therapy in autoimmune diseases and organ transplantation protection,'" said Song Guo Zheng, M.D., Ph.D., a Professor of Medicine and leading author involved in the work from the Department of Medicine, Autoimmunity Research Center at Penn State University Hershey College of Medicine, in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Taken from ScienceDaily