Figure 6.

Calcium-phosphate nanocrystals directly induce Spp1 (OPN) gene expression in tubular epithelial cells. Treatment of (A) mIMCD-3 cells, an immortalized mouse collecting duct cell line, or (B) RCTE cells, a novel human collecting duct cell line, with calcium-phosphate (hydroxyapatite) nanocrystals induced Spp1 gene expression compared with vehicle-treated control cells (*P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001; data presented as mean±SD; a minimum of two replicates were included for each treatment group per experiment, and each experiment was run in triplicate).