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Wolfson Institute of Population Health

Research Q&A: Dietary vitamin A and lung function

In this Q&A, Professor Seif Shaheen and Dr Mohammad Talaei from the Institute of Population Health Sciences discuss their new research, published in the European Respiratory Journal, which finds that optimising intake of preformed vitamin A as late as mid-childhood may have a beneficial impact on subsequent lung function in adolescence.

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What is new about the study?

Experiments in animals suggest that vitamin A plays a vital role in lung development, however evidence in humans is lacking, especially in the range of intakes well above the levels that cause severe hypovitaminosis. In a large cohort study in the UK, we confirmed that children who consume more vitamin A have higher lung function in adolescence, compared to children who consume less vitamin A. The differences we saw were clinically important. This supports the hypothesis that vitamin A plays an important role in human lung growth. We also found that the relation between vitamin A intake and lung function may partly depend on your genetic make-up.

Is there anything surprising about the results?

We expected to see a link with overall lung volume but we found stronger associations with airflow, suggesting a stronger influence on airway than alveolar development. We only observed higher lung function in children who consumed more preformed vitamin A (from animal sources) – there was no association with β carotene intake (a precursor of vitamin A from plant sources).

Why is the study important?

Our findings suggest that optimising intake of preformed vitamin A as late as mid-childhood may have a beneficial impact on subsequent lung function in adolescence. Finding ways to improve lung growth, lung function and hence lung health, could be particularly important for children growing up in an environment where factors such as tobacco smoke and air pollution may be damaging their lung development. Most of the gene-vitamin A interactions that we found were biologically plausible and thus make it more likely that our findings are causal, although they require replication in another cohort.

What are the wider implications?

Optimising lung growth in childhood is important because, the larger your lung capacity as an adult (after allowing for height and gender) the less likely you are to die – not just from respiratory disease, but also from cardiovascular disease - even if you have never smoked.

More information

Research paper: ‘Dietary intake of vitamin A, lung function, and incident asthma in childhood’. Mohammad Talaei, David A. Hughes, Osama Mahmoud, Pauline M. Emmett, Raquel Granell, Stefano Guerra, Seif O. Shaheen. European Respiratory Journal 2021; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.04407-2020