Program in Neuroscience and Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences at Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-4340, USA. levenson@neuro.fsu.edu
Gestational vitamin D deficiency causes permanent changes in the developing rat brain. Not only does it alter brain gene and protein expression, deficiency disrupts the balance between neuronal stem cell proliferation and programmed cell death in the offspring. These data are particularly relevant in light of new work showing a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in humans.