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Updated: Jul 5, 2026

Induction and Assessment of Exertional Skeletal Muscle Damage in Humans
Published on: December 11, 2016
Bicarbonate supplementation as a preventive way in statins-induced muscle damage
Masaki Kobayashi1, Toshiki Kagawa, Katsuya Narumi
1Laboratory of Clinical Pharmaceutics & Therapeutics, Division of Pharmasciences, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hokkaido University Kita-12-jo, Nishi-6-chome, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Japan.
Purpose:
The aim of this study was to evaluate the bicarbonate-induced improvement of statins, cerivastatin, simvastatin acid and lovastatin acid -induced apoptosis using rat myoblast cell line (L6) as a model of in vitro skeletal muscle and of cerivastatin-induced muscle damage in vivo study.
Methods:
Statin-induced reduction of cell viability and apoptosis was measured by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and caspase assay. In vivo, we evaluated plasma creatine phosphokinase (CPK) level in cerivastatin-treated rat.
Results:
Bicarbonate prevented cerivastatin-, simvastatin- acid and lovastatin acid -induced reduction of cell viability, morphological change and caspase activation in L6 cells. Moreover, in the in vivo study, bicarbonate prevented cerivastatin-induced increase in CPK concentrations.
Conclusions:
These results from in vitro and in vivo studies support that bicarbonate supplementation prevented statin-induced muscle damage.
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