Growth failure in vitamin D-deficient rat pups.

Vitamin D-deficient rat pups were produced by feeding normal impregnated rats a diet deficient in vitamin D after mating. The rat pups appeared normal at birth but stopped growing at 1 week of age. Despite this growth failure, these pups were normocalcemic. Analyses of calvaria from a similar group of dams given vitamin D3 showed that these dams mobilized skeletal calcium to meet the calcium requirements of their growing pups.