Novel form of vitamin D shown to grow bone.

2002 NOV 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A novel form of vitamin D has been shown to grow bone in the lab and in experimental animals, a result that holds promise for the estimated 44 million Americans, mostly postmenopausal women, who suffer from or are at risk for the bone-wasting disease osteoporosis.

The research, conducted by a team of scientists led by biochemist Hector F. DeLuca at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (2002;99).

"We've got a compound that is very selective for bone," said DeLuca. "It is very effective in animals," increasing bone density significantly in rats with a condition that mimics human osteoporosis, and can be used in the lab to grow bone in culture.

The research, conducted by DeLuca, Nirupama K. Shevde, Lori A. Plum, Margaret Claggett-Dame, Hironori Yamamoto and J. Wesley Pike, described the effects of a potent vitamin D analog known in scientific shorthand as 2MD. Its synthesis by the Wisconsin group, and studies of its effects in the lab and in animals, suggest the potential for developing a class of drugs that could effectively reverse bone loss in humans suffering from osteoporosis.

"From where I sit, this is the most promising vitamin D compound I've seen," said DeLuca, an international authority on vitamin D and its chemistry.

But he stressed that while the new compound posts astonishing results when used in experimental animals, it has yet to be tested in humans and it will likely be several years at best before a drug reaches the market.

"There's nothing like it on the market now. We think it could become a major actor, but we haven't done any experiments in people," he said.