Comparative Effects of Statins on Murine Cardiac Gene Expression Profiles in Normal Mice

Recent clinical data suggest that the efficacy of statin treatment in patients with heart failure varies depending on the drugs administered. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to compare murine cardiac gene expression following treatment with four different statins. Statins directly regulated cardiac gene expression in a drug-specific manner in mice. The influence of each statin on the cardiac mRNA expression of various genes, including several genes that might be involved in the development of cardiac disease, was not a general effect of this class of drugs. Male C57BL/6J mice (n = 20) were treated with or without a statin (pitavastatin calcium, pravastatin sodium, rosuvastatin calcium, or atorvastatin calcium hydrate) (n = 4 in each group) for four weeks. Total RNA was isolated from the left ventricle of each animal. The fragmented and labeled amplified cDNA was hybridized to a GeneChip Mouse Genome 430 2.0 Array (Affymetrix). Data and statistical analysis were performed with GeneSpring GX version 11.0 software (Agilent Technologies).