Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a range of clinical disorders. To study the mechanisms involved and improve treatments, animal models are tremendously useful. Current
vitamin D deficient rat models have important practical limitations, including time requirements when using, exclusively, a
vitamin D deficient diet. More importantly, induction of hypovitaminosis D causes significant fluctuations in
parathyroid hormone (PTH) and
mineral levels, complicating the interpretation of study results. To overcome these shortcomings, we report the successful induction of
vitamin D deficiency within three weeks, with stable serum PTH and minerals levels, in Wistar rats. We incorporated two additional manoeuvres compared to a conventional diet. Firstly, the
vitamin D depleted diet is
calcium (Ca) enriched, to attenuate the development of
secondary hyperparathyroidism. Secondly, six
intraperitoneal injections of
paricalcitol during the first two weeks are given to induce the rapid degradation of circulating
vitamin D metabolites. After three weeks, serum
25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25D) and
1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D) levels had dropped below detection limits, with unchanged serum PTH, Ca, and
phosphate (P) levels. Therefore, this model provides a useful tool to examine the sole effect of hypovitaminosis D, in a wide range of research settings, without confounding changes in PTH, Ca, and P.