Evaluation of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D and parathyroid hormone in Callithrix penicillata primates living in their natural habitat in Brazil.

Background: Vitamin D is a secosteroid hormone with important roles in the control of bone and mineral metabolism of vertebrates and in the maintenance of systemic homeostasis. This study aimed (i) to evaluate the serum concentrations of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D levels [25(OH)D], parathyroid hormone (PTH) and ionized calcium (iCa) of wild Callithrix penicillata (black-tufted marmosets) and (ii) to propose reference ranges for those analytes for free-living marmosets.

Methods: Blood samples were collected from 15 wild animals and analyzed for 25(OH)D, PTH and iCa.

25-hydroxy-vitamin D levels among Callithrix penicillata primate species raised in captivity.

Background: Animals in captivity should receive adequate sunlight exposure for sufficient generation of vitamin D [25(OH)D]. In the present study, 25(OH)D serum levels of 84 Callithrix penicillata primates were evaluated.

Objectives: To determine 25(OH)D levels of those animals; to evaluate the influence of gender and period of sunlight exposure on their 25(OH)D levels.

Hypophosphatemic rickets and osteomalacia.

The hypophosphatemic conditions that interfere in bone mineralization comprise many hereditary or acquired diseases, all of them sharing the same pathophysiologic mechanism: reduction in the phosphate reabsorption by the renal tubuli. This process leads to chronic hyperphosphaturia and hypophosphatemia, associated with inappropriately normal or low levels of calcitriol, causing osteomalacia or rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. X-linked hypophosphatemic rickets, autosomal-dominant hypophosphatemic rickets, and tumor-induced osteomalacia are the main syndromes involved in the hypophosphatemic rickets.