Mice were administered either a vehicle control (medium chain triglyceride; The Nisshin Oillio Group, Tokyo, Japan) (MCT), eldecalcitol (0.2 μg/kg), or calcitriol (2 μg/kg) by once-a-day oral gavage for 14 days (n = 5). selleck chemicals Blood, kidney, and intestine samples were collected 6 h after the last dosing. Six-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were purchased from CLEA Japan. Animals were fed with normal rodent chow and tap water and acclimated to the above conditions for 1 week. Rats were divided into 11 groups based on body weight. Various doses of eldecalcitol (0.025, 0.05, 0.1, 0.25, and 0.5 μg/kg), calcitriol (0.25, 0.5, 1, 2.5, and

5 μg/kg), or MCT vehicle were administered by once-a-day oral gavage for 14 days (n = 6). On the 13th day, rats were transferred to and kept in metabolic cages for 24 h to collect urine samples. Blood, bone, kidney, and intestine samples were collected at 6 h after the last dosing on the 14th day. Both animal studies were carried out in accordance with Chugai Pharmaceutical’s ethical guidelines of animal care, and the experimental protocols were approved by the animal care committee of the institution. Levels of calcium, phosphorus, and creatinine in serum and urine were determined by using an automatic analyzer (TBA-120FR; Toshiba Medical Systems, Tochigi, Japan). PTH in plasma was measured by

rat intact PTH ELISA kit (Immutopics International, San Clemente, CA, USA). FGF-23 in serum was measured by FGF-23 ELISA kit (Kainos Laboratories, DNA Synthesis inhibitor Tokyo, Japan). Calcitriol in serum was measured by 1,25(OH)2D RIA kit (TFB, Tokyo, Japan). Measurement of eldecalcitol in plasma was performed at the BoZo Research Center (Tokyo, Japan). The right femur, intestine, and kidneys of mice, and the right femur, intestine, and kidneys of rats were excised and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen. A small portion of each of the frozen tissues was soaked in TRIzol (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) and crushed in a homogenizer (Physcotron NS-310E; Microtec, Chiba, Japan). Total RNA was extracted

PD184352 (CI-1040) with an RNeasy Mini Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). cDNA was synthesized from 200 ng of total RNA by reverse transcription PCR using TaqMan Reverse Transcription Reagents (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA). The reaction was performed at 37 °C for 1 h. Expression of mRNA in the tissues was detected using TaqMan Gene Expression Assays (Applied Biosystems). Target cDNA was amplified by 40 cycles (1 cycle: 95 °C for 15 s, 60 °C for 1 min) of PCR in an ABI PRISM 7000 Sequence Detector System (Applied Biosystems). The TaqMan probes used in this study were TRPV5, TRPV6, calbindin-D28k, and calbindin-D9k of mice and TRPV5, TRPV6, calbindin-D28k, calbindin-D9k, receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL), FGF-23, CYP27B1, CYP24A1, and VDR of rats. 18S rRNA was used as a control. Data are represented as expression relative to that in rats treated with vehicle control.