The inhibitory effect of simvastatin and aspirin on histamine responsiveness in human vascular endothelial cells

Statins and aspirin deliver well-established cardiovascular benefits resulting in their increased use as combined polypills to decrease risk of stroke and heart disease. However, the direct endothelial effect of combined statin/aspirin cotreatment remains unclear. Histamine is an inflammatory mediator that increases vascular permeability, and so we examined the effect of treating human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) for 24 h with 1 μM simvastatin and 100 μM aspirin on histamine responsiveness. Subsequent histamine (1 μM) challenge increased intracellular calcium (Ca2+i) concentration, an effect that was significantly inhibited by combined simvastatin/aspirin pretreatment but not when then the compounds were given separately, even at 10-fold higher concentrations. In contrast, the Ca2+i mobilization response to ATP challenge (10 μM) was not inhibited by combined simvastatin/aspirin pretreatment. The H1 receptor antagonist pyrilamine significantly inhibited both histamine-induced Ca2+i mobilization and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) activation, whereas ranitidine (H2 receptor antagonist) was without effect. However, combined simvastatin/aspirin pretreatment failed to decrease H1 receptor protein expression ruling out receptor downregulation as the mechanism of action. Histamine-induced ERK activation was also inhibited by atorvastatin pretreatment, while simvastatin further inhibited histamine-induced vascular endothelial cadherin phosphoryla...
Source: AJP: Cell Physiology - Category: Cytology Authors: Tags: ARTICLES Source Type: research