effects of paricalcitol on body composition in vitamin d-deficient rats

background: paricalcitol has been proposed for the treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism in patients with renal failure and vitamin d deficiency (vdd); however, vdd is related to a range of clinical complaints. we aimed to investigate the effects of paricalcitol on body composition in vdd rats. methods: thirty adult male rats aged 10 weeks were randomly divided into three groups of 10, comprising control, vdd, and vdd plus paricalcitol32( ng/rat intraperitoneal injection) (vdd+p), at the animal lab of the endocrinology and metabolism research center, shiraz, iran, in 2020. body composition was assessed after three weeks via serum biochemical tests and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. finally, the data were analyzed by using the paired- sample t test, the one-way anova, and the tukey post hoc test. results: global lean mass and fat mass were lower in the vdd and vdd+p groups than in the controls (p 0.001). global fat percentage was reduced significantly in the vdd+p group (p=0.029). conclusion: paricalcitol reduced global fat mass and fat percentage in a rat model with vdd. evaluation of insulin and adiponectin levels is suggested to clarify the physiology of paricalcitol in vdd states.