Lovastatin attenuates ionizing radiation-induced normal tissue damage in vivo.

Abstract Background and purpose HMG-CoA-reductase inhibitors (statins) are widely used lipid-lowering drugs. Moreover, they have pleiotropic effects on cellular stress responses, proliferation and apoptosis in vitro . Here, we investigated whether lovastatin attenuates acute and subchronic ionizing radiation-induced normal tissue toxicity in vivo . Materials and methods Four hours to 24h after total body irradiation (6Gy) of Balb/c mice, acute pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic responses were analyzed. To comprise subchronic radiation toxicity, mice were irradiated twice with 2.5Gy and analyses were performed 3weeks after the first radiation treatment. Molecular markers of inflammation and f…