The effects of atorvastatin on the cardiomyocyte apoptosis induced by acute myocardial infarction in rats / 中国医师杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo investigate the effects of atorvastatin on cardiomyocyte apoptosis and caspase-3 expression in acute myocardial infarction in rats.MethodsFifty SD rats were randomly divided into 3 groupsham group,control group( normal saline),atorvastatin pretreatment group ( 10mg/kg),The atorvastatin group were pretreated with atorvastatin ( 10mg/kg ) for 3 days,and those in the control group were pretreated with normal saline instead.All rats underwent coronary ligation of left anterior descending branch to establish AMI rat s model on the fourth day except the sham group,while sham group only received thoracotomy without coronary ligation.Then,The infarct size area at risk were defined by Evans blue and TTC staining,the caspase-3 mRNA expression of myocardium was measured with reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) and the apoptosis index was analyzed by TUNEL staining.Results Compared with control group,the infarct size,the caspase-3 mRNA expression of myocardium,the apoptotic index were decreased significant in the atorvastatin group ( P ＜ 0.05 ).ConclusionPretreatment with atorvastatin has protective effect on the acute ischemic cardiomyocytes,which may probably be associated with the reduction of the expression of caspase-3 mRNA in the myocardium and the apoptotic index.