Cor Vasa 2003, 44(1):54-55

Atorvastatin and expression of leukocyte adhesion molecules in patients with hypercholesterolemia

Tomáš Štulc^1,*, Zdislava Kasalová¹, Michal Vrablík¹, Iuri Marinov², Richard Češka¹

¹ III. interní klinika, Všeobecná fakultní nemocnice a 1. lékařská fakulta Univerzity Karlovy

² Ústav hematologie a krevní transfuze, Praha, Česká republika

Leukocyte adhesion and transendothelial migration play an important role in atherogenesis. This process is mediated by cell adhesion molecules (CAM), which are expressed both on leukocytes and on endothelial cells. We therefore tested the hypothesis that atorvastatin decreases the surface expression of CAM on peripheral blood leukocytes in hypercholesterolemic patients.
27 patients with hypercholesterolemia were treated with atorvastatin 20 mg/day. Patients were examined at baseline and at the end of a 10-week treatment period. Expression of and integrins (CD11a,b, CD18, CD49d) and of L-selectin (CD62L) on leukocyte subpopulations was quantified by flow cytometry.
Reductions in total and LDL-cholesterol were 31% and 40%, respectively. Except for CD11b, the expression of integrins and L-selectin decreased substantially by 20-43% (p = 0.001 to 0.00001). On-treatment changes in the CAM expression did not correlate with changes in blood lipid levels.
Atorvastatin treatment significantly decreased the leukocyte expression of most of the adhesion molecules tested. This effect on leukocyte function may contribute to the antiatherogenic effect of atorvastatin in patients with hypercholesterolemia.

Keywords: Leukocytes; Cell adhesion molecules; Cholesterol; Atorvastatin

Published: January 1, 2003  Show citation