Pirro Matteo, Schillaci Giuseppe, Romagno Paolo F, Mannarino Massimo R, Bagaglia Francesco, Razzi Rolando, Pasqualini Leonella, Vaudo Gaetano, Mannarino Elmo
Unit of Internal Medicine, Angiology and Arteriosclerosis Diseases, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
J Cardiovasc Pharmacol Ther. 2009 Mar;14(1):14-21. doi: 10.1177/1074248408331021. Epub 2009 Jan 21.
Endothelial progenitor cells maintain endothelium integrity by replacing injured endothelial cells. Cholesterol-lowering promotes either endothelial progenitor cells mobilization or improves endothelial function. It is unknown whether improving endothelial function with statin is associated with a parallel increased endothelial progenitor cells availability. Thirty-two hypercholesterolemic patients were assigned to 4-week rosuvastatin (10 mg daily) and 16 hypercholesterolemic served as controls. Circulating endothelial progenitor cells, brachial artery flow-mediated vasodilatation, an index of endothelial function, and the lipid profile were measured before and after the 4-week statin therapy. At baseline, we found a correlation between circulating endothelial progenitor cells and flow-mediated vasodilatation (r = .31, P = .029). At the end of the 4-week intervention with rosuvastatin there was a 37% reduction in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P < .001) and a significant 72% increase in the number of endothelial progenitor cells and flow-mediated vasodilatation (4.7 + 0.7% to 8.8 + 0.4%, P < .001). Endothelial progenitor cells and flow-mediated vasodilatation were unchanged at the end of the study in patients not taking statin. A correlation emerged between endothelial progenitor cells and flow-mediated vasodilatation variations (r = .52, P < .001), this correlation being still significant after controlling for blood cholesterol reduction. In conclusion, short-term rosuvastatin therapy contributes in hyperchoelsterolemic patients to improving endothelial function by lowering cholesterol and increasing the number of circulating endothelial progenitor cells; the latter effect appears to be partly independent from reduction in plasma cholesterol.
内皮祖细胞通过替代受损的内皮细胞来维持内皮完整性。降低胆固醇可促进内皮祖细胞的动员或改善内皮功能。尚不清楚他汀类药物改善内皮功能是否与内皮祖细胞可用性的平行增加有关。32名高胆固醇血症患者被分配接受为期4周的瑞舒伐他汀治疗（每日10毫克），16名高胆固醇血症患者作为对照。在为期4周的他汀类药物治疗前后，测量循环内皮祖细胞、肱动脉血流介导的血管舒张（内皮功能指标）和血脂谱。在基线时，我们发现循环内皮祖细胞与血流介导的血管舒张之间存在相关性（r = 0.31，P = 0.029）。在接受瑞舒伐他汀4周干预结束时，低密度脂蛋白胆固醇降低了37%（P < 0.001），内皮祖细胞数量和血流介导的血管舒张显著增加了72%（从4.7 + 0.7%增至8.8 + 0.4%，P < 0.001）。在未服用他汀类药物的患者中，研究结束时内皮祖细胞和血流介导的血管舒张未发生变化。内皮祖细胞与血流介导的血管舒张变化之间出现了相关性（r = 0.52，P < 0.001），在控制血液胆固醇降低后，这种相关性仍然显著。总之，短期瑞舒伐他汀治疗有助于高胆固醇血症患者通过降低胆固醇和增加循环内皮祖细胞数量来改善内皮功能；后一种效应似乎部分独立于血浆胆固醇的降低。
