Vitamin D and cathelicidin assessment in children with pneumonia

Introduction: Pneumonia is a lung infection that becoming one of the most causes of death in children in developing countries. A deficiency of vitamin D has been suggested in several research had a potential role in reducing cathelicidin production. It is a peptide that could act as an anti-microbial agent. Thus this research aimed to analyze the effect of vitamin D supplementation on serum cathelicidin levels. Method: This study was a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest control group double-blinded design conducted in the pediatric inpatient ward of General Hospital Dr. Soetomo Surabaya. The inclusion criteria of the sample were children that have been diagnosed with pneumonia clinically, and the ages must range from 1 month up to 5 years old. An oral single dose of 100,000 IU of vitamin D (cholecalciferol) has been administered to the participant, on the day of enrolment after the collection of the blood samples. Cathelicidin and calcidiol (25-hydroxyvitamin D) levels were obtained. Supplementation with oral vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) at 100,000 IU single dose and placebo was given. At 8 days, all subjects had repeat serum cathelicidin and vitamin D levels. All of the data were annyalsis in SPSS ver 25. We analyze the data descriptively and analytically. For the analytic analysis, we analyze the data by man-witney and paired t-test. Results: Forty-six subjects were consisting in this study consisting of 23 cases and 23 controls, 30/46 were males and 16/46 were females. The median age in the study was 24 months. The mean levels of cathelicidin in the post-supplementation treatment group were 11.80 + 11.40 with p value= 1.00. Meanwhile, the mean level of cathelicidin in the placebo group after giving the placebo was 8.81 + 6.46 with p val ue= 0.29. Conclusion: Enhancement of vitamin D in children with pneumonia after giving the supplementation has been established. Meanwhile, only calcidiol serum level was to be significant in difference when comparing the pre and post-examination of the vitamin D supplementation group.