Interrelationship among vitamin D metabolism, true calcium absorption, parathyroid function, and age in women: evidence of an age-related intestinal resistance to 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D action.

We studied the mechanism of impaired calcium absorption with aging in 51 healthy women whose ages ranged from 26 to 88 years. Serum concentrations of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D [1,25-(OH)2D, mean of four measurements per subject] increased with age by 22% (P less than 0.05) but, by split-point analysis, plateaued or decreased slightly after age 65. In a subset of 20 subjects, [3H]1,25-(OH)2D3 kinetic analysis showed that this increase with age resulted from both increased production and decreased metabolic clearance of 1,25-(OH)2D. Despite the increase in serum 1,25-(OH)2D concentration, true calcium absorption did not change with age. The expected inverse correlation between true fractional calcium absorption and dietary calcium intake, however, was easily demonstrated (r = 0.66, P less than 0.001). Serum intact parathyroid hormone (PTH) increased with age by 35% (P less than 0.02) and serum bone gla protein (BGP, osteocalcin) increased by 47% (P less than 0.001); the increases in serum PTH and serum BGP were directly correlated (r = 0.32, P less than 0.05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)