Human lens cholesterol concentrations in patients who used lovastatin or simvastatin

To determine whether long-term therapeutic use of the hypocholesterolemic drugs lovastatin and simvastatin significantly alters the distribution and concentration of cholesterol in the human lens. Such changes might precede observable alterations in lens structure.

Pairs of lenses (9-13 pairs) from patients (age range, 46-81 years) who had been taking lovastatin or simvastatin before their death (estimated for the previous 2-4 years) and lenses from similarly aged control subjects were divided into outer cortex and inner cortex plus nucleus by dissolution in a detergent-containing buffer. Ten minutes of dissolution removed 17% to 19% of the lens total volume, which accounted for about 20% of the width of the equatorial cortex and 75% of the width of the sagittal cortex. This fraction plus the residual lens was homogenized, saponified, and assayed for cholesterol by gas-liquid chromatography.

The cortex of adult control lenses contained about 4 microg of cholesterol per cubic millimeter of volume. This concentration increased to 10 to 15 microg/mm3 in the adult nucleus and decreased to about 6 microg/mm3 in the juvenile and fetal nucleus. Treatment with neither lovastatin nor simvastatin significantly altered the concentration of cholesterol in either the cortex or nuclear fractions.

Variations in concentration of cholesterol along the radii of the lens reflect differences in the density or packing of fiber cell membranes. The observed distribution of cholesterol supports the recent model of the adult lens structure, which, from surface to center, is the cortex, adult nucleus,juvenile nucleus, fetal nucleus, and embryonic nucleus. Finding no significant changes in concentration of cholesterol in the cortex formed during treatment with lovastatin or simvastatin reinforces the results of clinical studies that indicate a high lenticular safety of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors. Nevertheless, caution is encouraged in assuming a similar ocular safety in newer drugs that inhibit cholesterol synthesis at later metabolic steps.

Does clinical use of hypocholesterolemic drugs alter lens cholesterol?