Skip to content
The Kids Research Institute Australia logo
Donate

Search

Research

Developing an Online Tool to Promote Safe Sun Behaviors With Young Teenagers as Co-researchers

Despite education about the risks of excessive sun exposure, teenagers in Australia are sun-seeking, with sunburn common in summer. Conversely, some regular (time-limited) exposure to sunlight (that avoids sunburn) is necessary for vitamin D and healthy bones and other molecules important for immune and metabolic health. New interventions are thus required to better support teenagers to make healthy and balanced decisions about their sun behaviors.

Research

Maternal diet during breastfeeding: Could it influence food allergy risk in children?

Human milk is rich in immuno-modulatory factors that have the potential to shape immune development and influence allergy risk in children. In this article, we describe how breast milk may contribute to making the infant less prone to developing allergies.

Research

Mapping the citation network on vitamin D research in Australia: a data-driven approach

Vitamin D research can vary geographically, as vitamin D status is influenced by latitude, season, dietary intake, body mass index, ethnicity, and public health initiatives. Over the last two decades, research on vitamin D has increased in Australia, where the potential for sun exposure (a major source of vitamin D) is high. We aimed to identify key topics and gaps in vitamin D research in Australia using a data-driven approach.

Research

What is the optimal level of vitamin D?: Separating the evidence from the rhetoric

New evidence indicates that both high and low 25(OH)D levels may be associated with increased health risks.

Research

Vitamin D deficiency causes airway hyperresponsiveness and increases airway smooth muscle mass in the lungs of female BALB/c mice

We tested whether there is a causal association between vitamin D deficiency, airway smooth muscle (ASM) mass, and the development of airway hyperresponsiveness

Research

Low vitamin D levels are associated with symptoms of depression in young adult males

Results from studies examining associations between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations and depressive symptoms are equivocal.

Research

Characterization of regulatory dendritic cells differentiated from the bone marrow of UV-irradiated mice

In summary, UV-BMDCs do not express the classical phenotypic or gene expression properties of DCs reported by others as 'regulatory' or 'tolerogenic'.

Research

Maternal vitamin D levels during pregnancy and offspring eating disorder risk in adolescence

This is the first study to link low gestational vitamin D to increased eating disorder risk in female offspring of Caucasian mothers.

Research

Maternal Vitamin D Levels and the Autism Phenotype Among Offspring

We tested whether maternal vitamin D insufficiency during pregnancy is related to the autism phenotype.