Effects of Atorvastatin on Pressure Overload-induced Cardiac Hypertrophy Mediated by Calcineurin

To investigate the effects of atorvastatin on cardiac hypertrophy mediated by calcineurin in rats with pressure-overload,Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly allocated into three groups:The sham-operated groups(n=10),model groups(n=10) and atorvastatin-treated groups(n=10).The model of pressure overload was established by abdominal arota constriction.At the end of the treatment period,the left ventricular weight/body weight ratio,left ventricular mass,wall thickness(by echocardiography),myocardial content of CaN and CaNmRNA(by westernblot and RT-PCR) were assessed.It is resulted that ① The left ventricular weight/body weight ratio of model group,as well as atorvastatin-treated group,was significantly higher than sham-operated group(P0.05);compared with model group,the ratio was lower in atorvastatin-treated group(P0.05).② observed a higher level of CaN and CaNmRNA expression in model group,as well as atorvastatin-treated group,as compared to sham-operated group(P0.05);significant higher level of CaN and CaNmRNA expression was observed in model group compared to atorvastatin-treated group(P0.05).The present data suggests that atorvastatin may inhibit calcineurin-mediated hypertrophy in rats with pressure-overload.