Effects of fluvastatin treatment on monocyte gene expression in SLE patients

The present gene expression array study of fluvastatin effects on monocytes from SLE patients show that fluvastatin has a global anti-inflammatory effect on monocytes, which includes attenuated expression of several proinflammatory cytokines, and regulated expression of molecules mediating lipoprotein signaling and cholesterol metabolism, as well as atherosclerosis and inflammatory signaling. Twenty seven SLE patients were given 20mg/day fluvastatin for one month. Blood samples were obtained before the starting of the treatment and at the end of treatment. Total RNA from monocytes was extracted using TRIzol reagent. RNA quality control was performed in a 2100 Bioanalyzer. Complementary RNAs from six SLE patients (four before treatment and two after treatment) were prepared for hybridization in an Agilent G4112F platform (Whole human Genome microarray 44K) using the One-color gene expression system (Agilent technologies).