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Statin therapy lowers muscle sympathetic nerve activity and oxidative stress in patients with heart failure
American Journal of Physiology - Heart and Circulatory Physiology, 08/09/2012
Clinical Article
Deo SH et al. – The findings indicate that short–term statin therapy concomitantly reduces resting muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) and total reactive oxygen species (ROS) and superoxide in heart failure (HF) patients. Thus, in addition to lowering cholesterol, statins may also be beneficial in reducing sympathetic overactivity and oxidative stress in HF patients.
Methods- The authors first performed a study in seven statin–naïve HF patients (56 ± 2 yr; ejection fraction: 31 ± 4%) to determine if 1 mo of simvastatin (40 mg/day) reduces muscle SNA (MSNA).
- Next, to control for possible placebo effects and determine the effect of simvastatin on ROS, a double–blinded, placebo–controlled crossover design study was performed in six additional HF patients (51 ± 3 yr; ejection fraction: 22 ± 4%), and MSNA, ROS, and superoxide were measured.
- The authors tested the hypothesis that statin therapy decreases resting MSNA in HF patients and this would be associated with reductions in ROS.
- In study 1, simvastatin reduced resting MSNA (75 ± 5 baseline vs. 65 ± 5 statin bursts/100 heartbeats; P < 0.05).
- Likewise, in study 2, simvastatin also decreased resting MSNA (59 ± 5 placebo vs. 45 ± 6 statin bursts/100 heartbeats; P < 0.05).
- In addition, statin therapy significantly reduced total ROS and superoxide.
- As expected, cholesterol was reduced after simvastatin.
