A Role for Vitamin D in Skeletal Muscle Development and Growth

November 27, 2013 — 

Although well known for its role in bone development and mineral homeostasis, there is emerging evidence that vitamin D is capable of functioning as a regulator of skeletal muscle development and hypertrophic growth. This review will focus on the relatively limited body of evidence regarding the impact of vitamin D on prenatal development and postnatal growth of skeletal muscle in meat animal species. Recent evidence indicating that improvement of maternal vitamin D status through dietary 25-hydroxycholecalciferol supplementation can positively affect fetal skeletal muscle fiber number and myoblast activity in swine, as well as work demonstrating that post-hatch vitamin D status enhancement stimulates a satellite cell-mediated skeletal muscle hypertrophy response in broiler chickens is discussed. The relative lack of information regarding how and when to best supply dietary vitamin D to promote optimal prenatal development and postnatal growth of skeletal muscle provides an exciting field of research. Expansion of knowledge in this area will ultimately improve our ability to efficiently and effectively produce the livestock required to meet the increasing world-wide demand for meat products. Starkey JD.; A Role for Vitamin D in Skeletal Muscle Development and Growth; J Anim Sci. 2013 Nov 15. [Epub ahead of print] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24243904

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