A novel pathway of vitamin D3 (D3) metabolism, initiated by C20-hydroxylation of D3 by CYP11A1, has been confirmed to operate in vivo. Its major product, 20(OH)D3, exhibits antiproliferative activity in vitro comparable to that of 1,25(OH)2D3, but is noncalcemic in mice and rats. To further characterize the antimelanoma activity of 20(OH)D3, we tested its effect on colony formation of human mel...

Vitamin D is emerging as a probably important environmental risk factor in multiple sclerosis, affecting both susceptibility and disease progression. It is not known to what extent this effect is due to a modulation of peripheral lymphocyte function, or to intrathecal effects of vitamin D. We investigated the effect of dietary vitamin D3 content on de/remyelination in the cuprizone model, which...

Aim: To prospectively evaluate the effects of vitamin D3 on disease activity and quality of life in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients with hypovitaminosis D. Methods: The study was a prospective double-blinded, randomized trial conducted at Community Regional Medical Center, Fresno, CA from 2012 2013. Patients with UC and a serum 25(OH)D level <30ng/ml were eligible for the study. Enrolled subje...

Synthetic peptide analogs mimicking a repeated motif within the Staphylococcus aureus fibronectin receptor inhibit binding of the bacteria to fibronectin (Signäs, C., Raucci, G., Jonsson, K., Lindgren, P. E., Anantharamaiah, G. M., Höök, M., and Lindberg, M. (1989) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 86, 699-703). In this study, we have further localized the fibronectin-binding determinant within the...

OBJECTIVE Vitamin D is essential for the maintenance of calcium homeostasis and bone mineralization; and low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (s-25-(OH)D) concentrations are associated with increased bone turnover. However, there is a lack of randomized controlled trials that have investigated the effect of vitamin D treatment on bone turnover in immigrant populations. We aimed to investigate the effe...

Toll-like receptors (TLR) represent an ancient front-line defence system that enables the host organism to sense the presence of microbial components within minutes. As inducers of inflammation, TLR act as important triggers of distinct entities such as sepsis or autoimmune disease exacerbation. We report here that vitamin D3 [1alpha,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol, 1,25(OH)(2)D3] suppresses the ex...

Vitamin D insufficiency is prevalent in chronic kidney disease (CKD) and associated with secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) and increased risk of bone and vascular disease. Unfortunately, supplementation of stage 3 or 4 CKD patients with currently recommended vitamin D2 or D3 regimens does not reliably restore serum total 25-hydroxyvitamin D to adequacy (≥30ng/mL) or effectively control SHPT....

AIM To prospectively evaluate the effects of vitamin D3 on disease activity and quality of life in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients with hypovitaminosis D. METHODS The study was a prospective double-blinded, randomized trial conducted at Community Regional Medical Center, Fresno, CA from 2012-2013. Patients with UC and a serum 25(OH)D level <30 ng/ml were eligible for the study. Enrolled subj...