Active Vitamin D Compounds and Analogues: A New Therapeutic Era for Dermatology in the 21st Century

Vitamin D, “the sunshine vitamin,” was discovered more than 70 years ago. This discovery led to the realization that the devastating crippling bone disease rickets that afflicted most children in industrialized cities worldwide was a result of a deficiency of vitamin D. Because vitamin D is rarely found in food, countries that fortified milk and other foods with vitamin D (vitamin D2 or vitamin D3) successfully eliminated rickets as a major health problem. Soon after the discovery of vitamin D, investigators learned that its principal biologic function was maintenance of serum calcium and phosphorus concentrations within the normal range, which is accomplished by enhancing the efficiency of the intestine to absorb dietary calcium and phosphorus.