Effect of atorvastatin on the expression of IL-8 in border zone myocardium and ventricular arrhythmia after acute myocardial infarction in rats

Objective:To investigate the effect of atorvastatin on the inhibition of ventricular arrhythmia after acute myocardial infarction(AMI).Method:Forty-five male AMI rats induced by left anterior descending branch ligation were randomly divided into AMI control group,high dose atorvastatin treatment group and low dose atorvastatin treatment group equally.Another ten rats were taken as the sham operation group.The high and low dose group were respectively treated at volume of 20mg·kg-1·d-1 and 10mg·kg-1·d-1 with atorvastatin for1 weeks by gavage,whereas the sham operation group were not given with any treatment.At 1st week,programmed electrical stimulus was imposed on the rat hearts to induce ventricular arrhythmia.Then the left ventricle free wall tissue in the sham operation group and the border zone myocardium in the rest of rats were preserved.The expression of myocardial IL-8was determined.Result:Compared with the sham operation group,there were higher expression of myocardial IL-8and greater induce ratio of ventricular arrhythmia in the AMI group.Compared with the AMI group,low dose atorvastatin treatment reduced the expression of myocardial IL-8and the induced ratio of ventricular arrhythmia(P0.05).Compared with the low dose atorvastatin group,high dose atorvastatin treatment reduced the expression of myocardial IL-8and the induce ratio of ventricular arrhythmia(P0.05).Conclusion:Atorvastatin may reduce the incidence of ventricular arrhythmia by inhibiting the over-expression of myocardial IL-8after AMI and the effect is dose dependent.