Figure 1.

Paricalcitol upregulated the COX-2 and PGE₂ pathway in HK-2 cells. (a) Semiquantitative immunoblotting revealed that paricalcitol significantly increased VDR and COX-2 expression in a dose-dependent manner. (b) RT-PCR results indicated that paricalcitol treatment did not affect expression of 15-PGDH and PGES. (c) The PGE₂ level was significantly elevated in paricalcitol-treated cells compared to control cells. Each column represents the mean ± SEM of three independent experiments. ^∗P < 0.05 versus control.