Treatment of an intramammary bacterial infection with 25-hydroxyvitamin D(3).

Deficiency of serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D(3) has been correlated with increased risk of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and influenza. A plausible reason for this association is that expression of genes encoding important antimicrobial proteins depends on concentrations of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) produced by activated immune cells at sites of infection, and that synthesis of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) is dependent on the availability of 25-hydroxyvitamin D(3). Thus, increasing the availability of 25(OH)D(3) for immune cell synthesis of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) at sites of infection has been hypothesized to aid in clearance of the infection.