On the molecular mechanism of intestinal calcium transport

The intestinal absorption of calcium is certainly a complex process, dependent on several factors of which vitamin D, via 1,25(OH)2D3, is the major controlling hormone. The efficiency of calcium absorption is a function of calcium status and calcium need. As the body's demand for calcium increases, the process commonly termed, adaptation, is activated in which the synthesis of 1,25(OH)2D3 from precursor is increased, resulting in the stimulation of the rate of calcium absorption. The increased demand for calcium might result from the ingestion of a diet deficient in calcium, from growth, pregnancy, lactation and egg shell formation in the laying hen. Accomapanying the change in calcium absorptive efficiency are molecular modifications of the transporting enterocytes, some mentioned herein and elsewhere (Wasserman & Chandler, 1985; Wasserman, 1980; Wasserman et al., 1984). Highly correlated with the rate of calcium absorption under a wide variety of conditions is the concentration of the vitamin D-induced calcium-binding protein, calbindin-D28K (avian type) and calbindin-D9K (mammalian intestinal type). The role of calbindin-D in this transport process is not precisely known but is considered to act at the present time as a cytosolic facilitator of Ca2+ diffusion from the brush border membrane to the basolateral membrane. In addition to the induction of calbindin-D synthesis, 1,25(OH)2D3 exerts other effects on the intestinal epithelium that can have consequences on the calcium absorptive process. Some of these effects are summarized in Figure 14. Vitamin D-dependent reactions might be either direct effects of 1,25(OH)2D3 or indirect effects due to elevated intracellular Ca2+ concentrations. These include changes in the fluidity of the brush border membrane, an increase in microvillar alkaline phosphatase-low affinity Ca-activated ATPase activity, an association of calmodulin with the 105 kD brush border cytoskeletal protein and, following calbindin D synthesis, the binding of calbindin D to a 60 kD brush border protein and to microtubules. The latter has been suggested to be related to the proposed transfer of Ca2+ by an endocytotic-exocytotic mechanism. In addition, a vitamin D-dependent intestinal membrane calcium-binding protein has been identified (Kowarski & Schachter, 1980). Playing into this multi-component system is a stimulation of cyclic nucleotide synthesis by 1,25(OH)2D3 which, through activation of cyclic nucleotide-dependent protein kinases, might modify membrane Ca2+ "channels" by phosphorylation reactions.4+ Intracellular organelles, i.e., the endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, the Golgi apparatus, are potent sequesters of Ca2+ and could contribute to the protection of the cell from excessively high Ca2+ concentrations by transiently storing absorbed Ca2+.