Development of efficient chemical syntheses of vitamin D degradation products

In recent years it has been recognized that vitamin D deficiency is associated with a wide range of diseases, including various types of cancers. Due to the enormous medical importance of vitamin D and its metabolites, their status in blood serum has to be accurately measured. Thus, the metabolites actually used as reference standards and also others of relevant biological activity have to be provided for validation and continuous improvement of appropriate diagnostic devices. Efficient chemical syntheses of vitamin D derivatives described in the literature are herein proven in a comparative study and applied to the synthesis of some of the most relevant natural metabolites as representative examples.