RESEARCH ARTICLE Simvastatin causes pulmonary artery relaxation by blocking smooth muscle ROCK and calcium channels: Evidence for an endothelium-independent mechanism 1,2 1,3 1 1 1 Mais Absi , Basma G. Eid , Nick Ashton , George Hart , Alison M. GurneyID * 1 Faculty of Biology Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Core Technology Facility level, a1111111111 Manchester, United Kingdom, 2 Cardiovascular Sciences, Kings College London, London, United Kingdom, 3 Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, a1111111111 Saudi Arabia a1111111111 a1111111111 *
[email protected] a1111111111 Abstract Simvastatin reduces pulmonary arterial pressure and right ventricular hypertrophy in animal OPEN ACCESS models of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and is thought to restore endothelial dys- Citation: Absi M, Eid BG, Ashton N, Hart G, Gurney function. In vivo effects of drugs are complicated by several factors and little is known of the AM (2019) Simvastatin causes pulmonary artery relaxation by blocking smooth muscle ROCK and direct effects of statins on pulmonary arteries. This study investigated the direct effects of calcium channels: Evidence for an endothelium- simvastatin on pulmonary arteries isolated from rats with or without monocrotaline-induced independent mechanism. PLoS ONE 14(8): PAH. Simvastatin suppressed contractions evoked by the thromboxane A2 receptor agonist e0220473. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. U46619 (30 nM), the α ±adrenergic agonist phenylephrine (5 μM) and KCl (50 mM) by pone.0220473 1 ~50% in healthy and diseased arteries, but did not reduce contraction evoked by sarco/ Editor: Alexander G. Obukhov, Indiana University endoplasmic reticulum ATPase blockers. It relaxed hypertensive arteries in the absence of School of Medicine, UNITED STATES stimulation.