Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Simvastatin can inhibit the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells and play a role in anti-vascular stenosis, but its mechanism is not fully understood.
OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of simvastatin on the expression of fibroblast growth factor 1 and p21ras in stenotic vessels after common carotid artery injury in rats.
METHODS: Animal model of common carotid artery injury was established. The rats were randomly divided into four groups: sham-operation group, model group, low-dose simvastatin group and high-dose simvastatin group. The rats in the latter two groups were treated with 5 mg/(kg • d) and 10 mg/(kg • d) simvastatin by gavage respectively, from 3 days before surgery to 14 days after surgery.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Hematoxylin-eosin staining showed that the vascular smooth muscle cells in the tunica media was obviously proliferated and disordered arranged, the lumen of the carotid artery became more stenosis. After treated with simvastatin, the tunica intima of the carotid artery was relatively smooth, the vascular smooth muscle cells in the tunica media were more regularly arranged and the straitness degree of the carotid artery lumen weakened. Western blot analysis showed that the expression of fibroblast growth factor 1 and p21ras protein increased significantly (P < 0.05). There was no obvious change in the two protein expressions after low-dose simvastatin treatment. The expression of fibroblast growth factor 1 and p21ras decreased significantly after high-doses simvastatin treatment (P <0.05). These findings indicate that simvastatin may suppress the expression of vascular smooth muscle cells and reduce vascular stenosis by inhibiting the expression of fibroblast growth factor 1 and p21ras.