Level of vitamin D and cathelicidin in preterm infants with congenital pneumonia

The level of antimicrobial peptides, which affects the course of the infectious process, depends on the concentration of vitamin D in the blood serum. The analysis of anthropometric and laboratory data in 90 premature newborns was carried out in the Stavropol Regional Clinical Perinatal Center and Stavropol Regional Clinical Perinatal Center № 1. Calcidiol medina in the study group was 17.9 [12.2; 23.3] ng/ml. At the same time, 54 (60 %) infants had 25(OH)D deficiency. Premature newborns who did not have an infectious process had a statistically significantly higher median calcidiol than infants who had congenital pneumonia and died (20.1 [16.2; 33.0] ng/ml, 17.9 [10.8; 23.4] ng/ml (p<0.05) and 13.8 [10.1; 17.1] ng/ml (p<0.01), respectively). The cathelicidin level in the group of children with congenital pneumonia was 1.1 [0.5; 2.4] ng/ml, without it – 1.1 [0.6; 2.1] ng/ml, which is almost two times lower than in the group of deceased newborns. The study found that a normalized level of 1.25-dihydroxycholecalciferol allows adequate synthesis of cathelicidin, leading to a reduced risk of adverse outcomes from infectious processes in premature newborns.