OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether paricalcitol could ameliorate kidney injury due to ischemia reperfusion (I/R) in an experimental study. STUDY DESIGN: Rats were divided into 4 groups: control, paricalcitol, I/R, and paricalcitol+I/R, each containing 7 animals. Intraperitoneal 0.3 μg/kg paricalcitol was administered to rats once a day for 5 consecutive days in the paricalcitol and paricalcitol+I/R groups. After right nephrectomy, rats were exposed to ischemia/ reperfusion on day 6 in the paricalcitol+I/R and I/R groups. Oxidant and antioxidant parameters, kidney function tests, and histology were investigated. RESULTS: Serum urea and creatinine levels exhibited a significant decrease in rats treated with paricalcitol before I/R as compared to rats exposed just to I/R. In a comparison of the paricalcitol+I/R group with the I/R group, serum total oxidant status (TOS) levels decreased significantly; serum total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and nitric oxide levels, however, increased significantly with paricalcitol administration. Malondialdehyde and TOS levels of kidney tissue were significantly lower, whereas TAC and paraoxonase levels were higher in the paricalcitol+I/R group than in the I/R group. Renal tissue injury scores were found to be significantly higher in the I/R group than in the paricalcitol+I/R group. CONCLUSION: Pretreatment with paricalcitol was detected to be renoprotective by decreasing renal injury related with renal I/R, which was assessed by improved renal function and histopathology. © Science Printers and Publishers, Inc.