Vitamin D supports activated CD4⁺ T-cell proliferation through enhanced glutaminolysis

Vitamin D (VitD) is an important immunometabolic regulator of T cell function. Its active form, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃, signals through the VitD receptor (VDR), which is highly expressed in activated CD4⁺ T cells. Although VDR signaling suppresses glycolysis by reducing glucose uptake and glycolytic enzyme expression, early T cell expansion is preserved, suggesting the involvement of alternative metabolic pathways. Since glutaminolysis is essential for T cell activation and proliferation, we investigated whether VitD modulates glutamine metabolism during early CD4⁺ T cell activation.

Human CD4⁺ T cells were stimulated with αCD3/CD28 for four days in the presence or absence of VitD, and analyzed using complementary metabolic, proteomic, and functional approaches.

VitD-treated cultures exhibited increased cell numbers despite reduced glucose uptake and lactate production, indicating proliferation partially independent of classical glycolytic metabolism. Proteomic analysis revealed increased expression of glutaminase, glutamate dehydrogenase, and CD38, together with enrichment of Selenium Metabolism and Selenoproteins and Nicotinate and Nicotinamide Metabolism, suggesting enhanced glutaminolysis and NAD+ remodeling. Consistently, tritiated and ¹³C-glutamine tracing demonstrated increased glutamine uptake and incorporation into glutamate, α-ketoglutarate, glucose, and inositol-related metabolites, supporting a glutaminolysis-dependent anabolic program rather than oxidative phosphorylation. Pharmacological inhibition of VDR (MeTC7, 1 nM), glutamine uptake (GPNA, 250 µM), or glutaminase activity (BPTES and compound 968, 5 µM) significantly reduced T cell expansion, highlighting glutamine metabolism as essential for the VitD-mediated cell expansion. Interestingly, prolonged cultures showed that VitD ultimately restricted proliferation at day 7; however, supplementation with glutamine and VitD restored cell expansion, suggesting that VitD promotes a metabolically restrained but adaptive proliferative state.

Overall, our findings identify glutaminolysis as a central metabolic pathway supporting VitD-induced CD4⁺ T cell expansion independently of canonical glycolytic and OXPHOS-associated programs, while promoting metabolic resilience and inflammatory restraint.