van Driel · Nutrients 2023 · narrative review · n=?

Vitamin D and Bone: A Story of Endocrine and Auto/Paracrine Action in Osteoblasts.

Cited 78 times in the scientific literature.

Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data

Narrative review of cellular and molecular mechanisms without primary human data

PubMed 36771187 · doi:10.3390/nu15030480 · record verified 2026-08-28

What was done

This narrative review synthesizes evidence on the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1α,25-OH2D3) acts via vitamin D receptors to regulate osteoblast proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation, and bone matrix mineralization, as well as the role of local vitamin D metabolic machinery.

What was found

The abstract reports no numerical findings. Qualitatively, it reports that osteoblast gene transcription responses to vitamin D depend on the differentiation and mineralization stage, and that osteoblasts express functional 1α-hydroxylase (CYP27B1) for local 1α,25-OH2D3 synthesis and 24-hydroxylase (CYP24A1) for its degradation, demonstrating autocrine/paracrine regulation of bone formation.

Why it matters

This work summarizes the conceptual shift in bone biology from viewing vitamin D solely as a classic renal endocrine hormone to recognizing its locally produced autocrine and paracrine actions directly within bone-forming cells.

Limits

The abstract describes a narrative review with no primary empirical data, no systematic review methodology, and no human clinical outcome metrics. Detailed sample sizes, study designs of cited literature, and quantitative effect sizes cannot be evaluated from the abstract alone.

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