Abstract
Vitamin A (VA) supplementation (VAS) has been used to reduce the overall childhood mortality in developing countries where VA deficiency is a seriously problem. However, detailed mechanisms for the reduction of childhood mortality by VAS remain unclear. In the investigation of the effect of VAS on cytokine production using a whole blood culture protocol, the focus was paid on the relation between VAS and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of TNF-α, IL-10 and TLR4 genes among various cytokine gene SNPs and thereby the relation between VAS and these cytokine gene SNPs was examined. As a result, there was a significant relation between VAS and only TNF-α-308 among the cytokine gene SNPs studied. VAS reduced TNF-αproduction significantly in G homozygotes, whereas VAS was found to have no effect on TNF-αproduction in A carriers. There was a borderline of significant three-way interactions among sex, VAS and TLR4+896 genotype. Thus, there was a quite limited relation between the reducing effect of VAS on cytokine production and cytokine gene polymorphisms. Therefore, further study is needed to clarify the relation between the reducing effect of VAS on cytokine production and cytokine gene polymorphisms.
