Calcipotriol (MC 903) is a synthetic VitD3 analogue. Which has a high affinity for the vitamin D receptor.

Calcipotriol slightly enhances (0.2 nM) IL-8 mRNA expression or has no effect (2-20 nM), when NHEK cells are not stimulated with IL-17A or IL-22. The addition of IL-17A and IL-22 markedly increased the mRNA expression of IL-8. This enhanced IL-8 mRNA expression is suppressed by Calcipotriol at 2, 20, and 40 nM in a dose-dependent manner [1]. Treatment of natural killer (NK) cells with drugs modulate their expression of NK cytotoxicity receptors or KIR. Human NK cells are pre-treated with 100, 10 or 1 ng/mL of 1,25(OH)2D3, Calcipotriol or FTY720 for 4 h. All three concentrations of Calcipotriol, 1,25(OH)2D3, and FTY720 significantly up-regulate the expression of NKp30 on the surface of NK cells after 4 h incubation [2].

Compare with placebo, the weight gain is significantly smaller in the groups treated with Diclofenac plus Calcipotriol (p=0.018) and Diclofenac plus DFMO plus Calcipotriol (p=0.002). Survival is equally distributed between the groups. One out of the 32 animals in each of the groups has died, except for the Diclofenac plus DFMO plus Calcipotriol group, where all animals survived [3].