Vitamin D3 and avian bone in vitro: stimulation of calcium movement into Japanese quail calvaria

Addition of 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D3) to cultured neonatal mouse calvaria has consistently led to bone resorption as determined by an increase in medium calcium. No such effect on avian bone has been widely reported. We have tested the in vitro effects of 1,25(OH)2D3 on 48- and 96-hour cultures of calvaria removed from both sexes of Japanese quail at various ages. No effect of 1,25(OH)2D3 on net calcium movement was seen in cultures of calvaria removed from neonatal (5-day), 1-week, and 2-week-old quail. In cultures of calvaria from 6-week-old female quail, addition of 1,25(OH)2D3 resulted in a fall in medium total and ionic calcium concentrations after 48 and 96 hours of incubation, indicating an uptake of calcium by the bones. A maximal effect was seen at 1 X 10(-7) M 1,25(OH)2D3. Bones removed from male and female quail showed no difference in response between the sexes. Bones removed from 5-, 4-, and 3-week-old male and female quail exhibited a progressively decreasing response with decreasing age. After 6 weeks of age female birds begin to exhibit hypercalcemia associated with reproductive activity. Bones removed from 7- and 8-week-old female quail responded to 1,25(OH)2D3 in a similar fashion whether they were hypercalcemic (7 weeks, 20.3 mg/dl; 8 weeks, 31.7 mg/dl), or normocalcemic (10.1 mg/dl). This stimulatory effect of 1,25(OH)2D3 on calcium uptake by avian bone is in sharp contrast to the hormone's effect in cultures of perinatal mammalian bones, which consistently respond to 1,25(OH)2D3 by releasing calcium into the medium.