A Commemorative Issue in Honor of Centennial of the Discovery of Vitamin D-The Central Role of Vitamin D in Physiology

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue celebrates the centennial of the naming of vitamin D by Elmer McCollum et al. as published in June 1922.

Vitamin D received the index “D” because it was the 4th vitamin named after vitamins called A, B and C. Dr. McCollum described the specific purpose of vitamin D as the protection of bone growth and the prevention of rickets. In the last 100 years, tremendous advances in the understanding of the physiological role and mechanisms of action have been achieved. Vitamin D2 in 1932 and vitamin D3 in 1937 were identified, but it took until 1978 to prove that vitamin D3 is synthesized in human skin after UV-B irradiation. At the beginning of the 1960s, 1,25(OH)2D3 (calcitriol) was found to be a biologically active form of vitamin D. The vitamin D receptor (VDR) was isolated in 1969, and its gene was cloned in 1987. This was the basis for understanding vitamin D as a direct regulator of hundreds of genes in various tissues. VDR’s ligand-binding domain was crystalized in 2000, and since 2010, we know VDR’s genome-wide binding pattern in various cellular models. In parallel, 1,25(OH)2D3 and its synthetic analogues have been known since the early 1980s as regulators of monocyte differentiation during hematopoiesis as well as inhibitors of cellular proliferation in various in vitro and in vivo models. Today, it is obvious that an appropriate vitamin D status is essential for maintaining the health and wellbeing of everyone. Thus, vitamin D3 does not only regulate our calcium level, in order to allow proper bone formation, as McCollum reported 100 years ago, but it also modulates our immune system and, in this way, indirectly protects us from cancer.

This vitamin D centenary issue provides a fantastic opportunity to present recent developments and the latest research in the fascinating broad range of today’s vitamin D biology, from evolution to systems biology.

Prof. Dr. Carsten Carlberg
Guest Editor

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