Effect of atorvastatin on progression of heart failure and association with sodium-calcium exchanger expression / 中国病理生理杂志

ABSTRACT

[ ABSTRACT] AIM:To investigate the effect of atorvastatin on the development of heart failure after myocardial infarction and the association with sodium-calcium exchanger (NCX) expression.METHODS:The model of heart failure was established by ligation of the anterior descending coronary artery for 8 weeks.The rats were randomly divided into con-trol group, heart failure group, and atorvastatin group.Either atorvastatin (10 mg· kg-1· d-1) or vehicle was orally ad-ministered to the rats on the next day after the surgery .The left ventricular function and NCX expression were analyzed 8 weeks after ligation .Neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were cultured to investigate the effect of atorvastatin on the changes of cal -cium concentration induced by hypoxemia .RESULTS: A decrease in left ventricular diastolic dimension , an increase in left ventricular fractional shortening , and reductions of BNP level and NCX expression were observed in atorvastatin group . The hypoxemia-induced calcium overload in cultured cardiomyocytes was inhibited by atorvastatin , and it was inhibited by the inhibitor of NCX .CONCLUSION:Atorvastatin treatment improves cardiac function , which may be related to the ex-pression and function of sodium calcium exchanger in heart failure .