Effects of rosuvastatin on expressions of NF-κB and interleukin-6 in rats with acute myocardial infarction

AIM:To evaluate the effects of rosuvastatin on inflammation of myocardial tissues in rats with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). METHODS: Twenty male Wistar rats with ligated LAD were used to establish models of AMI and the successfully established models were randomly divided into acute myocardial infarction group (AMI group) and rosuvastatin intervention group (ROS group). Another 10 rats (sham group) were tested with pierced but not ligated LAD. Rats in ROS group were given rosuvastatin by gavage at 10 mg/(kg·day) dose levels, whereas rats in the other two groups were given 2 ml normal saline each day. Four weeks later, noninfarcted myocardial tissues were observed with HE section staining, whereas NF-κB and IL-6 were detected by immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR. RESULTS: HE section staining showed that cardiac tissues were more orderly arrayed. There was less rupture of cardiac tissue fiber, less fibrosis, and the inflammatory cell reaction was milder in the ROS group compared with rats in the AMI group. No expressions of NF-κB and IL-6 were found in sham group. In AMI group, both mRNA expression and protein production of these cytokines were markedly higher than those in sham group (P<0.05). Significant reductions of mRNA expression and protein production of NF-κB and IL-6 were observed in ROS group compared with those in AMI group (P<0.05), NF-κB and IL-6 of the two were positively correlated (r=0.85, 0.78). CONCLUSION: Rosuvastatin helps regulate the activation of NF-κB and reduces the expression of IL-6 in AMI rat; therefore, it is beneficial to the ventricular remodeling improvement.