Vitamin D Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Vitamin D, including details on sources, melanin, benefits, deficiency, supplements, calcium absorption.

Calcium and vitamin D: what is known about the effects on growing bone.

Demay MB, Sabbagh Y, Carpenter TO

Endocrine Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. demay@helix.mgh.harvard.edu

The objective of these investigations was to determine if the receptor-dependent effects of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D were essential for normal skeletal growth. Mice with targeted ablation of the vitamin D receptor were engineered, and the skeletal consequences of vitamin D receptor ablation were studied in the presence of normal and abnormal mineral ion homeostasis. Prevention of abnormal mineral ion homeostasis resulted in the development of a normal skeleton in the absence of a functional vitamin D receptor. The metabolic cause of rickets was found to be hypophosphatemia. The major receptor-dependent actions of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D on skeletal development are indirect and are a reflection of the role of this hormone on intestinal calcium absorption.

Published 2 March 2007 in Pediatrics, 119: S141-4.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Vitamin D Research Today. All Rights Reserved.