Faculty Opinions Recommendation of The Vitamin D Receptor is a Wnt Effector That Controls Hair Follicle Differentiation and Specifies Tumor Type in Adult Epidermis.
TLDR The vitamin D receptor helps control hair growth and may protect against certain skin tumors.
The study by Pálmer HG et al. explored the role of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) as a downstream transcription factor in the WNT signaling pathway, which is crucial for hair follicle development. It was found that beta-catenin, a key component of the WNT pathway, can activate both VDR and the canonical transcription factor TCF/Lef. Interestingly, some genes responsive to beta-catenin have VDR promoter sites but not TCF/Lef sites. The research demonstrated that ligand-activated VDR could prevent follicular tumor formation by beta-catenin, likely by promoting natural differentiation. Additionally, low VDR expression was observed in infiltrative human basal cell carcinomas, which also showed clear nuclear beta-catenin expression, suggesting a protective role of VDR against certain skin tumors.
