Calcitriol but no other metabolite of vitamin D is essential for normal bone growth and development in the rat.

To determine the relative importance of different metabolites of vitamin D in bone growth and development, weanling male rat pups suckled by vitamin D-deficient mothers were given either calcitriol (1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol) by continuous subcutaneous infusion, oral calcidiol (25-hydroxycholecalciferol), or oral 24,24-difluoro-25-hydroxycholecalciferol, a synthetic compound that can undergo 1-hydroxylation but not 24-hydroxylation, as their sole source of vitamin D for 40 d. Pups raised in the same manner, but given no vitamin D, served as controls. The three metabolites compared were given in doses that restored normal plasma calcium levels and normal increments in body weight. After in vivo double tetracycline labeling, bone histomorphometry by standard methods was performed on one femur and one tail vertebra. There were no significant differences between the three metabolite-treated groups in length, periosteal or endosteal diameter, cortical cross-sectional area, cortical porosity, osteoid thickness and volume, appositional rate and bone formation rate in the femur, or in qualitative and quantitative indices of endochondral ossification in the tail vertebra. All three groups differed markedly from the untreated controls with respect to all measurements. Collectively, the data indicate that neither calcidiol nor any 24-hydroxylated metabolite of calcidiol is needed in the rat (other than as a precursor) for longitudinal or transverse bone growth, for normal endochondral ossification, or for normal periosteal and endosteal formation, mineralization, and resorption of bone. Calcitriol was fully active with respect to each of the indices listed when given in a manner resembling its continuous endogenous production by the kidney, suggesting that previous reports of incomplete skeletal response to calcitriol result from its rapid clearance and infrequent oral administration. We demonstrated that calcitriol is the only metabolite that is both necessary and sufficient for normal bone growth and development in the rat, but our data do not indicate the extent to which its beneficial skeletal effects were mediated by direct action on bone, either of calcitriol itself or of some metabolite thereof, or by restoration of normal plasma levels of calcium and phosphate.