Atorvastatin suppresses homocysteine formation in stimulated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells
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Katharina Schroecksnadel
Abstract
Hyperhomocysteinemia is regarded as an independent risk factor for vascular diseases, and homocysteine is supposed to contribute to oxidative stress and endothelial damage. Statin therapy is an established intervention to reduce the risk of acute events in patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases. Apart from their lipid-lowering capacity, statins also exert anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. As cellular immune activation and oxidative stress play a major role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases, the anti-inflammatory capacity of statins could partly be responsible for the beneficial effects observed in patients. Earlier we reported that stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) release homocysteine. Here we studied the influence of atorvastatin on homocysteine production in stimulated PBMCs and compared changes in cysteine concentrations and in neopterin production, which is a sensitive indicator of cellular immune activation. Stimulation of human PBMCs with the mitogens concanavalin A and phytohemagglutinin induced significant homocysteine and neopterin production compared to unstimulated cells, whereas cysteine concentrations remained unchanged. Treatment of PBMCs with increasing doses of atorvastatin (10–100μM) suppressed both biochemical pathways in a dose-dependent manner, and cell proliferation was inhibited in parallel. Again, cysteine levels were not influenced by any treatment. The down-regulating effect of atorvastatin on homocysteine formation in vitro indicates that statins may prevent homocysteine accumulation in the blood via immunosuppression.
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©2005 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
Articles in the same Issue
- Contents Volume 43, 2005
- Author Index
- Subject Index
- ProteinChips: the essential tools for proteomic biomarker discovery and future clinical diagnostics
- Protein profiling as a diagnostic tool in clinical chemistry: a review
- Protein biochip systems for the clinical laboratory
- Automation of biochip array technology for quality results
- SELDI-TOF-MS proteomics of breast cancer
- Protein microarrays for the diagnosis of allergic diseases: state-of-the-art and future development
- Separation of human serum proteins using the Beckman-Coulter PF2D™ system: analysis of ion exchange-based first dimension chromatography
- Rapid, accurate genotyping of alcohol dehydrogenase-1B and aldehyde dehydrogenase-2 based on the use of denaturing HPLC
- APOA1 polymorphisms are associated with variations in serum triglyceride concentrations in hypercholesterolemic individuals
- Simple PCR heteroduplex, SSCP mutation screening methods for the detection of novel catalase mutations in Hungarian patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus
- Glycogen phosphorylase BB in acute coronary syndromes
- Alteration in serum leptin correlates with alterations in serum N-telopeptide of collagen type I and serum osteocalcin during the progression of osteoporosis in ovariectomized rats
- Glycemic control in diabetes in three Danish counties
- Atorvastatin suppresses homocysteine formation in stimulated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells
- Buprenorphine detection in biological samples
- The effect of thyroid antibody positivity on reference intervals for thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4) in an aged population
- High-affinity antibodies in a new immunoassay for plasma tissue factor: reduction in apparent intra-individual variation
- Physiological matrix metalloproteinase concentrations in serum during childhood and adolescence, using Luminex® Multiplex technology
- Sensitive immunoassays for the autoantibodies reacting against citrullinated carboxy-terminal telopeptides of type I and type II collagens in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
- Acknowledgement
Articles in the same Issue
- Contents Volume 43, 2005
- Author Index
- Subject Index
- ProteinChips: the essential tools for proteomic biomarker discovery and future clinical diagnostics
- Protein profiling as a diagnostic tool in clinical chemistry: a review
- Protein biochip systems for the clinical laboratory
- Automation of biochip array technology for quality results
- SELDI-TOF-MS proteomics of breast cancer
- Protein microarrays for the diagnosis of allergic diseases: state-of-the-art and future development
- Separation of human serum proteins using the Beckman-Coulter PF2D™ system: analysis of ion exchange-based first dimension chromatography
- Rapid, accurate genotyping of alcohol dehydrogenase-1B and aldehyde dehydrogenase-2 based on the use of denaturing HPLC
- APOA1 polymorphisms are associated with variations in serum triglyceride concentrations in hypercholesterolemic individuals
- Simple PCR heteroduplex, SSCP mutation screening methods for the detection of novel catalase mutations in Hungarian patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus
- Glycogen phosphorylase BB in acute coronary syndromes
- Alteration in serum leptin correlates with alterations in serum N-telopeptide of collagen type I and serum osteocalcin during the progression of osteoporosis in ovariectomized rats
- Glycemic control in diabetes in three Danish counties
- Atorvastatin suppresses homocysteine formation in stimulated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells
- Buprenorphine detection in biological samples
- The effect of thyroid antibody positivity on reference intervals for thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4) in an aged population
- High-affinity antibodies in a new immunoassay for plasma tissue factor: reduction in apparent intra-individual variation
- Physiological matrix metalloproteinase concentrations in serum during childhood and adolescence, using Luminex® Multiplex technology
- Sensitive immunoassays for the autoantibodies reacting against citrullinated carboxy-terminal telopeptides of type I and type II collagens in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
- Acknowledgement
