Introduction
Vitamin D is essential for human health [1,2], so the high prevalence of
itsdeficiencyhasbecomeabigconcerninthemodernworld[3–5].Despite
thefactthatoralvitaminDsupplementsarefrequentlyemployedtotreatit
[6–9],mechanismsofvitaminDabsorptionremainpoorlyunderstood[10].
It has been attributed to a passive process [11], but as vitamin D is also
absorbed with fat-free food, membrane transporters could be involved
[12–15]. Moreover, it is possible that vitamin D and cholesterol share the
same transporters, since they are structurally similar.
Ezetimibe is a pharmacological inhibitor of the uptake of dietary
and biliary cholesterol, which acts through inhibition of Niemann–Pick
C1-Like 1 transporter (NPC1L1) in the enterocyte and liver [16].