Regulation of cell fate by hormones and nutrients

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Vitamins and phytochemicals are important constituents of the foods we eat and the environment in which humans find themselves in daily contact. Some vitamins behave in a similar fashion to classical steroid hormones with which we are very familiar, including the reproductive hormones estrogen and testosterone. While people readily accept that vitamin D is important for normal growth and development of teeth and bones, much less is known about its activity as a hormone in the control of blood and epithelial tissue development. Furthermore, though the nucleus (the brains of a cell) is frequently assumed to be the target of steroid hormones, we recently determined that much of vitamin D action was mediated by a receptor that resides largely at the surface of responsive cells. The current research program attempts to characterize the nature of this receptor-hormone complex, the critical participants in its ability to signal changes in cell behaviour, and the potential to regulate this response through changes in cell environment including exposure to omega-3 fatty acids and non-nutritive components of foods, usually described as phytochemicals. The hope is that this information will give us critical insight into how and why cells make the decisions to divide, die, differentiate or become quiet when challenged with specific molecules in their surroundings. This could provide the knowledge necessary to conceive of novel functional foods for animal and human consumption along with contributing to to our understanding of how the nutritive and non-nutritive components of foods contribute to normal growth and development and failure in the development of disease.