1,25(OH) 2 D 3 has a central rigid CD-bicyclic ring portion to which two flexible entities, the side chain and the seco-B,Aring, are connected. The characteristic seco structure of vitamin D 3 originates from the photolytic cleavage of the provitamin 7-dehydrocholesterol. The resulting previtamin triene (previtamin D 3 ) then reversibly thermo-isomerizes to the vitamin form in its less stable 6-s-cis conformation. Rapid rotation about the C6-C7 single bond eventually yields vitamin D 3 in its more stable extended 6-s-trans conformation (2, 3). Vitamin D 3 but also its hydroxylated metabolites are in constant equilibrium with their previtamin D 3 isomers. Previous studies with analogs of 1,25(OH) 2 D 3 that are either structurally blocked in the previtamin form (4, 5) or that only slowly isomerize to the vitamin form (6) indicated that the previtamin form of 1,25(OH) 2 D 3 is a poor activator of the genomic signaling pathway with minimal effects on cell proliferation and differentiation (7). However, the previtamin D 3 form is a potent activator of the non-genomic signal transduction pathway (5-7).The aim of this study is to investigate the biological profile and the genomic signaling pathway of four different locked 19-nor-1,25(OH) 2 -(pre)-vitamin D 3 analogs, with or without a modified CD-ring. Indeed, the sigmatropic shift required for the previtamin-vitamin D conversion cannot occur in these analogs because of the deletion of C19 (4). First, the affinity to VDR was determined as well as the stability of VDR conformation after interaction with the ligand. Second, the potency of the analogs to induce interaction of the VDR-RXR heterodimer with DNA (vitamin D-responsive elements) and TIF2 (as a representative of the p160 family of coactivators; Ref. 8) was investigated. Third, the ability of 19-nor-1,25(OH) 2 -(pre)-vitamin D 3 analogs to induce VDR-dependent transcriptional activation was studied in transient transfection experiments and by determining the induction of vitamin D 24-hydroxylase (CYP 24) gene expression. Finally, docking of the analogs in the ligand binding domain (LBD) of VDR was studied by evaluation