Influence of vitamin D & a probiotic on inflammation and gut bacteria
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Influence of vitamin D and a probiotic on inflammation and gut bacteria
IRAS ID
304233
Contact name
Philip C Calder
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
67586
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN10131460
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 31 days
Research summary
The number of older people in the population is increasing. However, many older people have health problems. Some of these are linked with increased inflammation with age, which increases the likelihood of some conditions like heart disease. Older people can also have weakened immune systems meaning that they are more at risk from infections (this has become clearly apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic) and that vaccines may not work so well. There may be many reasons for these age-related changes but one of these may be altered nutrition and another may be an alteration in gut bacteria (called microbiota). Vitamin D is an important nutrient to the immune system and older people often have low blood levels of vitamin D. Probiotics are live bacteria that colonise the lower gut (“bowel”) and bring about health benefits including helping the immune system to function better. We plan to conduct a randomised controlled trial of vitamin D, a probiotic, and the combination of vitamin D and the probiotic in people aged over 70 years. We will measure markers of immune function and inflammation in blood before and after the 3 month intervention. We will measure the types of bacteria in faecal samples collected before and after the intervention as an indicator of the gut bacteria. We will measure chemicals in urine samples collected before and after the intervention as indicators of a) the diet of the participants ad b) their gut bacteria. We hypothesise that taking vitamin D will increase blood vitamin D levels, that taking the probiotic will alter the gut bacteria, and that taking vitamin D and the probiotic (either alone or together) will reduce inflammation. This research is being funded by the Medical Research Council.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/SC/0403
Date of REC Opinion
25 Jan 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion