Morbidity, mortality and the incidence of myocardial revascularisation procedures can be reduced by simvastatin, an inhibitor of the HMG-CoA reductase (EC 1.1.1.34). It was hypothesised that inhibition of isoprenylation of signalling proteins by HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (vastatins), especially of the p21ras proteins could be causative for suppression of vascular smooth muscle cell (SMC) proliferation. The primary pharmacological mechanism of vastatins on human vascular SMC still remains unexplained. To analyse the influence of vastatins, SMC grown in presence of endothelial cell growth supplement (ECGS) were exposed to different concentrations of lovastatin. At 10 microM concentration, inhibition of SMC proliferation was associated with induction of apoptosis in a large fraction of cells as at the 1 microM level apoptosis was induced only in a minority of SMC. Protein phosphorylation on tyrosine, serine and threonine residues demonstrated no differences to untreated controls. Lovastatin induced arrest of cells in G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle and DNA synthesis was reduced. Western blot analysis demonstrated a significant induction of p21WAF1/Cip1 protein expression. This led to strong inhibition of cyclin dependent kinases (cdks) resulting in a cell cycle arrest. Our study provides evidence for a pharmacological explanation for the inhibition of ECGS-driven proliferation of human SMC by lovastatin.

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