Simvastatin causes endothelial cell apoptosis and attenuates severe pulmonary hypertension.

نویسندگان

  • Laimute Taraseviciene-Stewart
  • Robertas Scerbavicius
  • Kang-Hyeon Choe
  • Carlyne Cool
  • Kathy Wood
  • Rubin M Tuder
  • Nana Burns
  • Michael Kasper
  • Norbert F Voelkel
چکیده

Severe pulmonary hypertension (SPH) is characterized by precapillary arteriolar lumen obliteration, dramatic right ventricular hypertrophy, and pericardial effusion. Our recently published rat model of SPH recapitulates major components of the human disease. We used this model to develop new treatment strategies for SPH. SPH in rats was induced using VEGF receptor blockade in combination with chronic hypoxia. A large variety of drugs used in this study, including anticancer drugs (cyclophosphamide and paclitaxel), the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor lisinopril, the antiangiogenic agent thalidomide, and the peroxisome proliferator-actived receptor-gamma agonist PGJ2, failed to decrease mean pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) or right ventricular hypertrophy. In contrast, treatment of rats with established SPH with simvastatin markedly reduced mean PAP and right ventricular hypertrophy, and this reduction was associated with caspase-3 activation and pulmonary microvascular endothelial cell apoptosis. Simvastatin partially restored caveolin-1, caveolin-2, and phospho-caveolin expression in vessel walls. In rat primary pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells, simvastatin induced caspase 3 activation and Rac 1 expression while suppressing Rho A and attenuated levels of Akt and ERK phosphorylation. We conclude that simvastatin is effective in inducing apoptosis in hyperproliferative pulmonary vascular lesions and could be considered as a potential drug for treatment of human SPH.

منابع مشابه

Simvastatin rescues rats from fatal pulmonary hypertension by inducing apoptosis of neointimal smooth muscle cells.

BACKGROUND Pulmonary vascular injury by toxins can induce neointimal formation, pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), right ventricular failure, and death. We showed previously that simvastatin attenuates smooth muscle neointimal proliferation and pulmonary hypertension in pneumonectomized rats injected with the alkaloid toxin monocrotaline. The present study was undertaken to investigate the ...

متن کامل

Simvastatin attenuates smooth muscle neointimal proliferation and pulmonary hypertension in rats.

Hypertensive pulmonary vascular disease is characterized by abnormal proliferation of vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells, leading to occlusion of pulmonary arterioles, pulmonary hypertension, right ventricular failure, and death. Compounds with antiproliferative effects on vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells, such as 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase i...

متن کامل

Endothelial cells and pulmonary arterial hypertension: apoptosis, proliferation, interaction and transdifferentiation

Severe pulmonary arterial hypertension, whether idiopathic or secondary, is characterized by structural alterations of microscopically small pulmonary arterioles. The vascular lesions in this group of pulmonary hypertensive diseases show actively proliferating endothelial cells without evidence of apoptosis. In this article, we review pathogenetic concepts of severe pulmonary arterial hypertens...

متن کامل

New models of pulmonary hypertension based on VEGF receptor blockade-induced endothelial cell apoptosis

In spite of treatment, severe angioproliferative pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) remains a disease characterized by great morbidity and shortened survival. New treatment strategies for patients with PAH are needed, and after drug development, preclinical studies are best conducted in animal models which present with pulmonary angio-obliterative disease and right heart failure. A rat model...

متن کامل

Attenuation of chronic hypoxic pulmonary hypertension by simvastatin.

The 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) have been shown to improve multiple normal endothelial cell functions and inhibit vascular wall cell proliferation. We hypothesized that one such agent, simvastatin, would attenuate chronic hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. Male adult Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed (14 days) to normoxia (N), normoxia plus once-a-day admini...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

متن کامل
عنوان ژورنال:
  • American journal of physiology. Lung cellular and molecular physiology

دوره 291 4  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2006