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

Abstract

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.