Vitamin D utilization in subhuman primates

Abstract

Experiments of nature are crucial for informing scientific discovery. Nearly 30 years ago we began to investigate an outbreak of rachitic bone disease in adolescent New World primates residing at the Los Angeles Zoo. Our investigation of this experiment of nature and that of an adolescent human female with a similar phenotype led us to the discovery of a novel means for relative resistance to vitamin D in primates, including man. We coined this resistance-causing protein the vitamin D response element-binding protein or VDRE-BP for its ability to compete in trans with the liganded vitamin D receptor (VDR) for its cognate response elements. VDRE-BP is now identified as a nucleic acid-binding protein(s) in the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein C (hnRNPC) family. The purpose of this review is to examine the role of the VDRE-BP and other associated intracellular proteins that regulate the expression of vitamin D-controlled genes in nonhuman and human primates.