Vitamin D: part I - from plankton and calcified skeletons (500 million years ago) to rickets

Created March 2018

International Orthopaedics, pp 1–13, Online: 05 March 2018,

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00264-018-3857-3 - not available on Sci-Hub.tv as of March 5, 2018

Philippe Hernigou philippe.hernigou@wanadoo.fr , Jean Charles Auregan, Arnaud Dubory

Very impressive set of references in this study, but very very old --- * History of Vitamin D from 500 million years ago to orthopaedic practice today – 2019 * parts I, II, and III by these authors, includes full PDFs * Vitamin D history back to Egyptians and fortification - Aug 2011 * Vitamin D – millions of years more ancient than Calcium – Jan 2016 * More sunshine: more teeth (1862), fewer cavities (1934) – Oct 2011 * SOLAR ultraviolet radiation and vitamin D: a historical perspective – Aug 2007 * Sunshine is a cure for “weak and soft muscles” – 425 BC * Teeth getting worse due to lower level of vitamin D during the past 5,000 years * Evolution and Vitamin D, Omega-3, obesity, mitochondria, DNA, etc. – Feb 2019

The vitamin D history started early in the evolution of life (billion years ago) as a photochemical reaction producing an inert molecule. During the early evolution of vertebrates, this molecule became essential for calcium and bone homeostasis of terrestrial animals and arrived to the status of hormone.

Phytoplankton, zooplankton, and most plants and animals that are exposed to sunlight have the capacity to make vitamin D. Vitamin D is critically important for the development, growth, and maintenance of a healthy skeleton from birth until death. The major function of vitamin D is to maintain calcium homeostasis. It accomplishes this by increasing the efficiency of the intestine to absorb dietary calcium. When there is inadequate calcium in the diet to satisfy the body’s calcium requirement, vitamin D communicates to the osteoblasts that signal osteoclast precursors to mature and dissolve the calcium stored in the bone.

The typical “vitamin D-deficiency” disorder was observed for growing children in the west and south of England in the early 1600s. This disease was described by Glisson and named “rickets” (known also as “the English disease”) and was observed with epidemic proportions in northern Europe and North America. The corrections of deformities of rickets were at the origin of the name “orthopedia” and of the technique of osteotomies.

References (some are really really old and are in Google Scholar)

Click here for hyperlinks

  • 1 Bouillon R, Suda T (2014) Vitamin D: calcium and bone homeostasis during evolution. Bonekey Rep Jan 8 3:480. https://doi.org/10.1038/bonekey.2013.214, CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral Google Scholar

  • 2 Summons RE, Bradley AS, Jahnke LL, Waldbauer JR (2006) Steroids, triterpenoids and molecular oxygen. Philos Trans R Soc Lond Ser B Biol Sci 361:951–968, CrossRef Google Scholar

  • 3 Bloch KE (1983) Sterol structure and membrane function. CRC Crit Rev Biochem 14:47–92, CrossRefPubMed Google Scholar

  • 4 Holick M (1989) Phylogenetic and evolutionary aspects of vitamin D from phytoplankton to humans. In: Schreibman P, Pang M (eds) Vertebrate endocrinology: fundamentals and biomedical implications. Academic Press, San Diego, Google Scholar

  • 5 Holick MF (2003) Vitamin D: a millenium perspective. J Cell Biochem 88:296–307, CrossRefPubMed Google Scholar

  • 6 Vanherwegen AS, Gysemans C, Mathieu C. (2017) Vitamin D endocrinology on the cross-road between immunity and metabolism. Mol Cell Endocrinol Apr 28, Google Scholar

  • 7 Maier GS, Horas K, Seeger JB, Roth KE, Kurth AA, Maus U (2014) Is there an association between periprosthetic joint infection and low vitamin D levels? Int Orthop Jul 38(7):1499–1504, CrossRef Google Scholar

  • 8 Bills CE. ( 1924 ) Studies on the antiricketic vitamin. Ph.D. Dissertation. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, Google Scholar

  • 9 Bills CE ( 1927 ) Antrirachitic substances. VI. The distribution of vitamin D with some notes on its possible origins. J Biol Chem 72:751–758, Google Scholar

  • 10 Copping AM ( 1934 ) Origin of vitamin D in cod-liver oil: vitamin D content zooplankton. J Biol Chem 28:1516–1520, Google Scholar

  • 11 Drummond JC, Gunther ER ( 1930 ) Vitamin content in marine plankton. Nature (London) 126:398, CrossRef Google Scholar

  • 12 DeLuca HF (2008) Evolution of our understanding of vitamin D. Nutr Rev 66:S73–S87, CrossRefPubMed Google Scholar

  • 13 Bikle DD (2011) Vitamin D: an ancient hormone. Exp Dermatol 20:7–13, CrossRefPubMed Google Scholar

  • 14 Witten PE, Huysseune A (2009) A comparative view on mechanisms and functions of skeletal remodelling in teleost fish, with special emphasis on osteoclasts and their function. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 84:315–346, CrossRefPubMed Google Scholar

  • 15 Bailly du Bois M, Milet C, Garabedian M, Guillozo H, Martelly E, Lopez E et al (1988) Calcium dependent metabolism of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol in silver eel tissues. Gen Comp Endocrinol 71:1–9, CrossRefPubMed Google Scholar

  • 16 Hay AW, Watson G (1977) Vitamin D2 in vertebrate evolution. Comp Biochem Physiol B 56:375–380, CrossRefPubMed Google Scholar

  • 17 Bikle DD (2011) Vitamin D metabolism and function in the skin. Mol Cell Endocrinol 347:80–89, CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral Google Scholar

  • 18 Vanchinathan V, Lim HW (2012) A dermatologist’s perspective on vitamin D. Mayo Clin Proc 87:372–380, CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral Google Scholar

  • 19 Herodotus. (2013) Herodotus : the histories 525 BC: the complete translation, backgrounds, commentaries. Translated by Walter Blanco. Edited by Jennifer Tolbert Roberts. New York: W. W. Norton, Google Scholar

  • 20 Palm TA ( 1890 ) The geographic distribution and etiology of rickets. Practitioner 45(270–279):321–342, Google Scholar

  • 21 Soranus of Ephesus: Why the Majority of Roman Children Are Distorted; in: Treatise on the Diseases of Women, 98–138 AD , Google Scholar

  • 22 Marcial Marco Valerio, ( 1490 ) Epigrammata, Mediolani, Udalricus Scinzenzeler,. Custodiado en el Archivo del Gobierno de Aragón, Google Scholar

  • 23 Foote J ( 1927 ) Evidence of rickets prior to 1650. Am J Dis Child 34:443–452. Google Scholar

  • 24 Gwei-Djen L, Needham J (1976) Records of diseases in ancient China . Am J Chin Med 4:3–16, CrossRefPubMed Google Scholar

  • 25 Vitiello A, Fornaciari A, Giusiani S, Fornaciari G, Giuffra V (2015) The Medici children (Florence, XVI–XVII centuries): anthropological study and proposal of identification. Med Secoli 27:29–49, PubMed Google Scholar

  • 26 Giuffra V, Vitiello A, Caramella D, Fornaciari A, Giustini D, Fornaciari G (2015) Rickets in a high social class of renaissance Italy : the Medici children. Int J Osteoarchaeol 25:608–624, CrossRef Google Scholar

  • 27 Frenk S, Faure-Fontenla MA (1995) Rachitis, not arthritis, in Caravaggio’s sleeping child. Lancet 345:801, CrossRefPubMed Google Scholar

  • 28 Glisson F. (1654) Anatomia hepatis. London, Google Scholar

  • 29 Glisson F. ( 1650 ) De Rachitide sive morbo puerili, qui vulgo The Rickets diciteur. London, pp 1–416. Google Scholar

  • 30 Whistler D. ( 1645 ) De morbo puerili Anglorum quem patrio idiomate indigenae vocant the rickets (concerning the disease of English children, which in English it is called “rickets”). M.D. Thesis, Universiteit Leiden, Academia Lugduno-Batava, Leiden, The Netherland, Google Scholar

  • 31 Smerdon GT (1950) Daniel whistler and the English disease—a translation and biographical note. J Hist Med Allied Sci 5:397–415, CrossRefPubMed Google Scholar

  • 32 Glisson, F. ( 1651 ) A treatise of the rickets: being a disease common to children. Translated and edited by N. Culpeper. London: P. Cole, Google Scholar

  • 33 Kyle RA, Shampo MAJM (1988) Founder of hotel Dieu of Montreal. Mayo Clin Proc 63:212, CrossRefPubMed Google Scholar

  • 34 Nova et Vetera ( 1925 ) Paedosplanchnosteocaces. BMJ 2:1080, CrossRef Google Scholar

  • 35 Graunt J. ( 1662 ) Natural and political observations, mentioned in a following index and made upon the bills of mortality. London, Google Scholar

  • 36 Levacher de la Feutrie T (1772) Traite du rakitis, ou l’art de redresser les enfants contrefaits. Paris, Lacombe. Google Scholar

  • 37 Moller JO (1859) “Uber akute Rachitis,” Konigsberg. Med J 1:377–379, Google Scholar

  • 38 Barlow T (1883) On Cases Described as ‘Acute Rickets’ Which are Probably a Combination of Scurvy and Rickets, the Scurvy Being an Essential, and the Rickets a Variable Element. Med Surg Trans 66:159–219. Google Scholar

  • 39 Barlow T (1945) Obituary. Lancet 1:131–132, Google Scholar

  • 40 Griffith JPC, Jennings CG, Morse JL (1898) The American pediatric Society’s collective investigation of infantile Scurvey in North America. Boston Med Surg J 138:605–609, CrossRef Google Scholar

  • 41 Andry N, ( 1743 ) Orthopaedia: Or, the Art of Correcting and Preventing Deformities in Children (London: A. Millar), 127–30. Google Scholar

  • 42 Tubby AH ( 1912 ) Deformities Including Diseases of the Bones and Joints, vol 1. Macmillan and co., Ltd, London, p 647, Google Scholar

  • 43 Rizzoli F (1869) Das Ubereinanderschieben der Fragmente einer zufallig Fractur des Femur zur Behebung des Hiken, welches durch unverbesserliche Verkurzung des entgegengesetzen Beines bedingt wird. Wien med Wschr jahrd 19:1238–1240, Google Scholar

  • 44 Langenbeck B (1854) Die subkutane Osteotomie. Dtsch klin Wschr 6:327–330, Google Scholar

  • 45 Volkmann R (1875) Professor Volkmann on antiseptic osteotomy. Edinburg Med Surg J 10:740–745. Google Scholar

  • 46 Hernigou P (2016) Authorities and foundation of the orthopaedic school in Germany in the 19th century: part II: Richard von Volkmann, Julius Wolff, Albert Hoffa, Friedrich Trendelenburg and other German authors. Int Orthop 40(4):843–853, CrossRefPubMed Google Scholar

  • 47 Hernigou P (2015) Bone transplantation and tissue engineering. Part II: bone graft and osteogenesis in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Duhamel, Haller, Ollier and MacEwen). Int Orthop Jan 39(1):193–204, CrossRef Google Scholar

  • 48 Macewen W (1880) Osteotomy with an inquiry into the Aetiology and pathology of knock-knee, bow-leg and other osseous deformities of the lower limbs. J. & A. Churchill, London. Google Scholar

  • 49 Calot F (1914) Indispensable Orthopaedics, trans, A. H. Robinson and Louis Nicole from the 6th French ed. Bailliere, Tindall and Cox, London, p 192, Google Scholar

Tags: Rickets