The vitamin D hormone and its nuclear receptor: molecular actions and disease states

Vitamin D plays a major role in bone mineral homeostasis by promoting the transport of calcium and phosphate to ensure that the blood levels of these ions are sufficient for the normal mineralization of type I collagen matrix in the skeleton. In contrast to classic vitamin D-deficiency rickets, a number of vitamin D-resistant rachitic syndromes are caused by acquired and hereditary defects in the metabolic activation of the vitamin to its hormonal form, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D3), or in the subsequent functions of the hormone in target cells. The actions of 1,25(OH)2D3 are mediated by the nuclear vitamin D receptor (VDR), a phosphoprotein which binds the hormone with-high affinity and regulates the expression of genes via zinc finger-mediated DNA binding and protein-protein interactions. In hereditary hypocalcemic vitamin D-resistant rickets (HVDRR), natural mutations in human VDR that confer patients with tissue insensitivity to 1,25(OH)2D3 are particularly instructive in revealing VDR structure function relationships. These mutations fall into three categories: (i) DNA binding/nuclear localization, (ii) hormone binding and (iii) heterodimerization with retinoid X receptors (RXRs). That all three classes of VDR mutations generate the HVDRR phenotype is consistent with a basic model of the active receptor as a DNA-bound, 1,25(OH)2D3-liganded heterodimer of VDR and RXR. Vitamin D responsive elements (VDREs) consisting of direct hexanucleotide repeats with a spacer of three nucleotides have been identified in the promoter regions of positively controlled genes expressed in bone, such as osteocalcin, osteopontin, beta 3-integrin and vitamin D 24-OHase. The 1,25(OH)2D3 ligand promotes VDR-RXR heterodimerization and specific, high affinity VDRE binding, whereas the ligand for RXR, 9-cis retinoic acid (9-cis RA), is capable of suppressing 1,25(OH)2D3-stimulated transcription by diverting RXR to form homodimers. However, initial 1,25(OH)2D3 liganding of a VDR monomer renders it competent not only to recruit RXR into a heterodimer but also to conformationally silence the ability of its RXR partner to bind 9-cis RA and dissociate the heterodimer. Additional probing of protein-protein interactions has revealed that VDR also binds to basal transcription factor IIB (TFIIB) and, in the presence of 1,25(OH)2D3, an RXR-VDR-TFIIB ternary complex can be created in solution. Moreover, for transcriptional activation by 1,25(OH)2D3, both VDR and RXR require an intact short amphipathic alpha-helix, known as AF-2, positioned at their extreme C-termini. Because the AF-2 domains participate neither in VDR-RXR heterodimerization nor in TFIIB association, it is hypothesized that they contact, in a ligand-dependent fashion, transcriptional coactivators such as those of the steroid receptor coactivator family, constituting yet a third protein-protein interaction for VDR. Therefore, in VDR-mediated transcriptional activation, 1,25(OH)2D3 binding to VDR alters the conformation of the ligand binding domain such that it: (i) engages in strong heterodimerization with RXR to facilitate VDRE binding, (ii) influences the RXR ligand binding domain such that it is resistant to the binding of 9-cis RA but active in recruiting coactivator to its AF-2 and (iii) presents the AF-2 region in VDR for coactivator association. The above events, including bridging by coactivators to the TATA binding protein and associated factors, may position VDR such that it is able to attract TFIIB and the balance of the RNA polymerase II transcription machinery, culminating in repeated transcriptional initiation of VDRE-containing, vitamin D target genes. Such a model would explain the action of 1,25(OH)2D3 to elicit bone remodeling by stimulating osteoblast and osteoclast precursor gene expression, while concomitantly triggering the termination of its hormonal signal by inducing the 24-OHase catabolizing enzyme.