Figure 3.

Vitamin D (VD) increased VDR protein levels and prevented enhanced migration in fibroblasts from CD patients. Fibroblasts were treated for 24 h with VD (10 nM or 100 nM) or vehicle. (a) A Western blot showing protein levels in fibroblasts isolated from control mucosa (n = 4) or the non-damaged and damaged tissue of CD patients (n = 4) treated with vehicle or VD (100 nM). Graphs show VDR protein expression vs. GAPDH represented as fold induction vs. vehicle in control cells and vs. non-damaged vehicle in CD cells. Bars represent mean ± s.e.m., and significant differences vs. the respective vehicle group are shown by * p < 0.05. (b) The graph represents a time course of the percentage of the wounding area (time 0, 100%) in fibroblasts from CD-damaged tissue cultured with medium iFBS-free treated with vehicle (n = 4) or VD (100 nM) (n = 4). Symbols represent mean ± s.e.m., and significant difference vs. the vehicle group is shown by ** p < 0.01. Representative images showing the wound healing assay. (c) Graphs show the relative mRNA expression (expressed as fold induction vs. vehicle control group) of different genes vs. β-actin in fibroblasts from control mucosa (n = 4), CD-non-damaged (n = 6), and CD-damaged (n = 7) tissue. Bars in graph represent mean ± s.e.m, and significant differences from vehicle-treated control group (connecting lines) are shown by * p < 0.05 or from the respective vehicle-treated group by *** p < 0.001. (d) Significant correlations (showed by Ct gene-Ct β-actin) detected between VDR and markers of fibrosis in intestinal fibroblasts treated with vehicle (n = 17) or with vitamin D 10 nM and 100 nM (n = 34).