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Directing immune development to curb sky-rocketing disease

Once upon a time it was infectious diseases like polio, measles or tuberculosis that most worried parents. With these threats now largely under control, parents face a new challenge – sky-rocketing rates of non-infectious diseases such as asthma, allergies and autism.

UVB phototherapy for participants with an early form of multiple sclerosis

Matt Prue Stephanie Cooper Hart Trend BCA Marketing, BSc Statistics and Applied Statistics, PhD BSc (Hons) MSc PhD BSc PhD Manager, Biostatistics

UVR exposure, Vitamin D and type 1 diabetes

Liz Prue Davis Hart MBBS FRACP PhD BSc (Hons) MSc PhD Co-director of Children’s Diabetes Centre Honorary Research Fellow prue.hart@thekids.org.au

Use of linked administrative and laboratory data to confirm that serum 25(OH)D levels in pregnant women can be predicted from satellite estimates of ultraviolet radiation

Serum 25 hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels of pregnant women have been linked to various health outcomes in their offspring. Satellite-derived ultraviolet radiation (UVR) data have been used as a proxy for 25(OH)D levels, as individual-level cohort studies are time-consuming, costly and only feasible for common outcomes.

Narrowband UVB phototherapy reduces TNF production by B-cell subsets stimulated via TLR7 from individuals with early multiple sclerosis

At the end of a 60-day course of narrowband UVB phototherapy, administered to individuals with early multiple sclerosis, there were changes in the relative proportions of circulating B-cell subsets. This study investigated phototherapy-associated changes to cytokine responses of B cells when exposed to a TLR7 ligand.

Epigenome-wide analysis links SMAD3 methylation at birth to asthma in children of asthmatic mothers

We sought to assess whether the trajectory to asthma begins already at birth and whether epigenetic mechanisms, contribute to asthma inception.

Altered regulatory T-cell fractions and Helios expression in clinically isolated syndrome: clues to the development of multiple sclerosis

These results indicate that T regulatory (Treg) and follicular T regulatory (Tfr) impairment is an early feature in MS.

Sub-erythemal ultraviolet radiation reduces metabolic dysfunction in already overweight mice

Exposure to sunlight may limit cardiometabolic risk.

Are low sun exposure and/or Vitamin D risk factors for type 1 diabetes

Evidence supports that higher sun exposure and/or vitamin D sufficiency in pregnancy, or supplementation in early life, decreases type 1 diabetes risk

Ultraviolet radiation, Vitamin D and the development of obesity, metabolic syndrome and type-2 diabetes

Emerging findings suggest a protective role for ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and sun exposure in reducing the development of obesity and cardiometabolic dysfunction, but more epidemiological and clinical research is required that focuses on measuring the direct associations and effects of exposure to UVR in humans.