Atorvastatin and myocardial reperfusion injury: new pleiotropic effect implicating multiple prosurvival signaling

We investigated the potential role of atorvastatin, given at reperfusion, to improve survival of the ischemic/reperfused myocardium by activation of p44/42 MAPK and p38 MAPK with its downstream effector, HSP27. We have previously shown that atorvastatin attenuates lethal reperfusion-induced injury via activation of the phosphatidyl inositol 3-kinase (PI3K) prosurvival signaling pathway. In this study we hypothesize that other prosurvival kinases may also be implicated in this protection. Langendorff-perfused mouse hearts were subjected to 35 minutes of global ischemia followed by 30 minutes of reperfusion, and either infarct size or the levels of phosphorylated AKT, p44/42 MAPK, p38 MAPK, and HSP27 were analyzed. Atorvastatin was administered during reperfusion only. We used wortmannin to block PI3K/AKT, U0126 to block p44/42 MAPK, and SB203580 to prevent the phosphorylation of p38 MAPK and HSP27. Atorvastatin significantly reduced infarct size (32.96 +/- 3.4% versus 51.27 +/- 2.79% in controls, P < 0.05). This protection was abrogated by wortmannin (48.38 +/- 4.28%), U0126 (52.58 +/- 7.58), and SB203580 (49.37 +/- 4.16%). Western blot analysis confirmed significant phosphorylation of AKT, p44/42 MAPK, p38 MAPK, and HSP27 following administration of atorvastatin during reperfusion and abrogation of the respective phosphorylation in the presence of their specific inhibitors. Atorvastatin given at reperfusion attenuates lethal reperfusion-induced injury by the phosphorylation of multiple prosurvival pathways involving not only PI3K/AKT but also p44/42 MAPK, p38 MAPK, and HSP27.