Hypothesis: Vitamin D maintains health by stabilizing ROS and Ca2 signaling

Vitamin D: a custodian of cell signalling stability in health and disease.

Berridge MJ; The Babraham Institute, Babraham, Cambridge, CB22 3AT, U.K.

Biochemical Society Transactions: 2015, 43(3):349-358, DOI: 10.1042/BST20140279

There is increasing evidence that a deficiency in vitamin D contributes to many human diseases such as

  • Alzheimer's disease (AD),

  • Parkinson's disease (PD),

  • multiple sclerosis (MS),

  • hypertension and

  • cardiovascular disease.

The ability of vitamin D to maintain healthy cells seems to depend on its role as a guardian of phenotypic stability particularly with regard to the reactive oxygen species (ROS) and Ca2+ signalling systems. Vitamin D maintains the expression of those signalling components responsible for stabilizing the low-resting state of these two signalling pathways. This vitamin D signalling stability hypothesis proposes that vitamin D, working in conjunction with klotho and Nrf2 (nuclear factor-erythroid-2-related factor 2), acts as a custodian to maintain the normal function of the ROS and Ca2+ signalling pathways. A decline in vitamin D levels will lead to an erosion of this signalling stability and may account for why so many of the major diseases in man, which have been linked to vitamin D deficiency, are associated with a dysregulation in both ROS and Ca2+ signalling.

PMID:26009175

See also VitaminDWiki

Created June 2015