Treatment of HK-2 cells with 15 μM cisplatin with or without human hepcidin addition. (A) After a 24-h incubation, cisplatin induced ∼20% cell death (reductions in MTT uptake) irrespective of the presence or absence of 1 μg/mL hepcidin or albumin (albumin used as a nonspecific protein control). (B) After a 48-h incubation, cisplatin caused ∼80% MTT reductions irrespective of the addition of 5 μg/mL of hepcidin or albumin. Thus no evidence of hepcidin-mediated in vitro protection was observed with either mild or severe cisplatin toxicity.