The effects of vitamin D on the rat kidney metabolism under conditions of experimental hypercalcemia.

The effects of vitamin D3 on rat kideney metabolism under conditions of experimental hypercalcemia. Acta Physiol. Pol., 1978, 29 (2) 153--159. The effect of vitamin D3 on renal gluconeogenesis processes was studied in the rat. The performed estimations of gluconeogenesis rate from malate and lactate demonstrated significant increases of glucose formation rate when kidney cortex slices of the vitamin D3 treated animals were analyzed. Further studies on the mechanism of the observed phenomenon were performed using kidney cell fractionation procedure and fluorometric estimation of the concentration of selected gluconeogenetic metabolites. Significant increases of phosphoenolpyruvate concentration in the cytosol fraction and citrate concentration in the mitochondrial fraction were observed. Comparison of the described action of vitamin D3 on gluconeogenesis and the effect of parathyriod hormone, as known from the literature suggests similar mechanism of both factor actions. A possibility of vitamin D3 action through the increase in intracellular calcium has been discussed.