Effect Of Atorvastatin On The Production Of Interleukin-18 In Cultured Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells Activated By Ox-LDL

Objective The chronic inflammatory response of vascular cells to injury is a major pathogenetic mechanism in the development of atherosclerosis. Vascular endothelial cell injury elicited by oxidized low density lipoprotein ( ox-LDL) is considered to be a key trigger in the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. As one of proinflammatory cytokines, Interleukin-18(IL18) is highly expressed in atherosclerosis plaques. Thus, we believe that inflammatory processes may be potential targets of therapy in preventing or treating atherosclerosis. Recent experimental and clinical evidence suggests that Inhibitors of 3-hydroxy-3-methylylutaryl coenzyme A (also known as statins) have potential non-LDL-lowering 'pleiotropic' functions such as anti-inflammatory effects, antioxidant effects and improvement of endothelial dysfunction, with involvement of cholesterol-independent mechanism. The possibility that ox-LDL may stimulate the production of IL18 in cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) , which may be inhibited by atorvastatin, has never been reported. In this study, we sought to investigate the production of IL18 in HUVEC and the proliferation of HUVEC activated by ox-LDL, which provide the experimental evidence of prevention and treatment on atherosclerosis.Methods HUVECs Cultured in vitro at passage 3 to 9 were used for experiment. HUVECs were cultured in DMEM medium supplemented with 20% fetal calf serum, seeded in 12-well and 96-well plates respectively. There were three groups: (Dcontrol group; (2)ox-LDL groups: LDL was oxidized by exposure to CuSO₄ for...