The effect of atorvastatin on mRNA levels of inflammatory genes expression in human peripheral blood lymphocytes by DNA microarray

Accumulating evidence indicates that beneficial effects of statins on inflammatory processes besides their lowering-lipid activities, statins are thought to exert anti-inflammatory effects via direct inhibition of inflammatory genes expression. Little comprehensive analysis has been made of gene-expression changes after statin therapy. In this study, to search novel genes after treatment by atorvastatin (one of the most potent statins), we performed a DNA microarray analysis by using normal human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL). Analysis of gene expression by DNA microarray showed that 180 genes were downregulated 3-fold changes by atorvastatin therapy compared with controls, changes in the expression of 11 inflammatory genes, confirmed by real-time RT-PCR. The results showed that atorvastatin significantly decreased the expression of six cytokines (IL-6, IL-8, IL-1, PAI-1, TGF-β1, TGF-β2) and five chemokines (CCL2, CCL7, CCL13, CCL18, CXCL1). Our results showed the marked changes in these cytokine and chemokine expression in human PBL by atorvastatin therapy. It seemed that these data were useful as a reference database of inflammatory gene changes, some of which may be new biomarkers follow atorvastatin treatment.