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ARTICLE
Simvastatin acts as an inhibitor of interferon gamma-induced cycloxygenase-2 expression in human THP-1 cells, but not in murine RAW264.7 cells
1. Department of Pharmacology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 110-799, Korea.
2. Department of Pharmacology, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Suwon 440-746, Korea.
3. Department of Microbiology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 110-799, Korea.
* Address correspondence to: Sang-Kyu Ye. E-mail: sangkyu@snu.ac.kr
BIOCELL 2009, 33(2), 107-114. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2009.33.107
Abstract
Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is a key inflammatory response molecule, and associated with many immune functions of monocytes/macrophages. Particularly, interferon gamma (IFNγ)-induced COX-2 expression appears in inflammatory conditions such as viral infection and autoimmune diseases. Recently, statins have been reported to show variable effects on COX-2 expression, and on their cell and species type dependences. Based on the above description, we compared the effect of simvastatin on IFNγ-induced COX2 expression in human monocytes versus murine macrophages. In a result, we found that simvastatin suppresses IFNγ-induced COX-2 expression in human THP-1 monocytes, but rather, potentiates IFNγ-induced COX-2 expression in murine RAW264.7 macrophages. However, signal transducer and activator of transcription 1/3 (STAT1/3), known as a transcription factor on COX-2 expression, is inactivated by simvastatin in both cells. Our findings showed that simvastatin is likely to suppress IFNγ-induced COX-2 expression by inhibiting STAT1/3 activation in human THP-1 cells, but not in murine RAW264.7 cells. Thus, we concluded that IFNγ-induced COX-2 expression is differently regulated by simvastatin depending on species specific mechanism.Keywords
Cite This Article
LEE, C. S., SHIN, Y. J., WON, C., LEE, Y., PARK, C. et al. (2009). Simvastatin acts as an inhibitor of interferon gamma-induced cycloxygenase-2 expression in human THP-1 cells, but not in murine RAW264.7 cells. BIOCELL, 33(2), 107–114.Citations
