Rat kidney 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 1 alpha- and 24-hydroxylases: evidence for two distinct gene products

Total RNA was isolated from kidneys of Sprague-Dawley rats. Oligo (dT)-primed single-stranded cDNA was obtained by the reverse transcriptase reaction from which a 285 bp cDNA probe coding for 25-hydroxyvitamin D3-24-hydroxylase [25(OH)D3-24-OHase] was generated by the polymerase chain reaction. Northern blotting performed with kidney poly (A)+ RNA isolated from rats (1) fed a standard diet, (2) depleted in D3 and hypocalcemic, and (3) fed a standard diet and injected intraperitoneally with 50,000 IU of vitamin D3 for 5 days showed that the transcript for 24-OHase was weakly expressed in control, and highly induced in vitamin D3-treated animals. No transcript could be elicited in vitamin D-depleted hypocalcemic animals in which 25(OH)D3-1 alpha-OHase was maximally induced. The data show that 24-OHase is independently regulated of 1 alpha-OHase, strongly suggestive of the enzymes being encoded by two distinct genes.