PRL gene expression is dependent on the presence of the pituitary-specific transcription factor GHF-1/Pit-1, which is transcribed in a highly restricted manner in cells of the anterior pituitary. In pituitary GH3 cells, vitamin D increases the levels of PRL transcripts and stimulates the PRL promoter. We have analyzed the role of GHF-1 and of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) to confer vitamin D res...

The report by Dr Chen and colleagues, published in this issue of Circulation, “Cardiomyocyte-Specific Deletion of the Vitamin D Receptor Gene Results In Cardiac Hypertrophy,” is important and timely.1 This study extends and supports other studies that have demonstrated that vitamin D and the vitamin D receptor (VDR) signaling system possess antihypertrophic activity in the heart. The study also...

Background—A variety of studies carried out using either human subjects or laboratory animals suggest that vitamin D and its analogues possess important beneficial activity in the cardiovascular system. Using Cre-Lox technology we have selectively deleted the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene in the cardiac myocyte in an effort to better understand the role of vitamin D in regulating myocyte struct...

Introduction: Vitamin D fulfills its crucial role in cell proliferation and death through signal transduction into the nucleus by vitamin D receptor (VDR). Recent studies have depicted the association between VDR gene polymorphisms and different cancers, including breast cancer. This study attempted to consider the relationship between VDR gene polymorphisms and breast cancer risk among women i...

Introduction: Vitamin D fulfills its crucial role in cell proliferation and death through signal transduction into the nucleus by vitamin D receptor (VDR). Recent studies have depicted the association between VDR gene polymorphisms and different cancers, including breast cancer. This study attempted to consider the relationship between VDR gene polymorphisms and breast cancer risk among women i...

There is growing interest in the contribution of vitamin D deficiency to autoimmunity. Several studies have shown an association between low levels of vitamin D and autoimmune disorders, including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, autoimmune thyroid diseases, celiac disease, and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Vitamin D receptor ligands can mediate immunosuppressive...

We have examined the effect of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 on the promoter activity of the atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) gene in cultured neonatal rat atrial myocytes. In acute transfection studies 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 inhibited the expression of a human ANP (hANP) promoter-driven chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter (-1150 hANP CAT) in a dose-dependent fashion (10(-10)-10(-8) M). Whe...

Several studies have confirmed an initial report of a relation between bone density and polymorphic forms of the calcitriol (vitamin D) receptor gene, whereas others have failed to find an association. We examined whether variants of the vitamin D receptor gene are associated with the risk of bone fracture, using a nested case-control analysis within the Nurses' Health Study cohort. The study w...