Deficiency of Vitamin D in HIV Infected Patients and Its Effect on Some of the Immunological Parameters

Today the HIV infection is a chronic disease with significantly longer duration of the life of the pa-tients. Problems of pressing interest are the persistent immune activation and chronic inflamma-tion during the treatment with antiretroviral therapy. Taking this into account, different factors which could affect the immune system and the progress of the HIV infection are being researched. Vitamin D (25(OH)D) is one of those factors if we take note of its effect on the innate and acquired immunity. The aim of this study was to assess 25-hydroxyvitamin D (vitamin D) status in one part of the Bulgarian HIV-infected adult population and to assess connection between 25-hydroxyvi-tamin D (vitamin D) status and plasma levels of some major cytokines (IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α and IFN-γ). The study includes 145 HIV-positive patients, who are being monitored in the Depart-ment for acquired immune deficiency at Specialized Hospital for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases “Proff. Ivan Kirov”—Sofia. From all of the monitored patients only in 15 % of the tested we foun