Patent Application: US-67388807-A

Abstract:
a method of enhancing survival and differentiation of stem cells , and cells of myogenic lineage derived from said stem cells , when the cells are exposed to an inflammatory or apoptotic stimulus comprises culturing stem cells in vitro in a medium containing a statin , to produce statin - pretreated cells with enhanced resistance to inflammatory or apoptotic stimuli . additionally , the statin - pretreated cells may be caused or allowed to differentiate into statin - pretreated cells of myogenic lineage . the resulting inflammation - and apoptosis resistant cells may then be used for cell therapy , as in treating an ischemic or infarcted vessel or heart .

Description:
it is now proposed that at least some statins and isoprenoid pathway inhibitors can be advantageously used to influence cardiovascular stem cell and / or myocyte survival , proliferation and differentiation . despite the recent knowledge that statin treatment may confer cardioprotection in isolated perfused hearts during ischemia - reperfusion , the molecular mechanism underlying the statin protective effect is unknown . because stem cells participate in post - ischemic heart repair , it was of interest to determine whether statin treatment inhibits cytokine - induced expression of inos in premature , undifferentiated cardiac myoblasts . in this study , a cell culture system was employed to determine whether inhibition of hmg - coa reductase by simvastatin alters expression of inos in embryonic , undifferentiated cardiac myoblasts exposed to proinflammatory cytokines . the resulting data showed that simvastatin treatment significantly reduced expression of inos in cardiac myoblasts stimulated with cytokines . the statin inhibitory effect might occur through a mechanism in which isoprenoids , an intermediate or similar by - products from cholesterol synthesis , regulate activation of several key intracellular signalling proteins , such as rho a kinase and nf - κb . taken together , this data strongly supports the notion that statins have regulatory effects on inos expression by undifferentiated myoblasts during the development of cardiac failure and inflammation . the present investigation also included determining whether a statin ( e . g ., simvastatin ), at therapeutic doses , would affect embryonic stem cell ( esc ) myogenic differentiation and resistance to apoptosis . the impact of endogenous cholesterol depletion by inhibition of hmg - coa reductase was also determined . it was found that simvastatin , at therapeutic doses , promotes esc myogenic differentiation and increased their resistance to apoptosis . materials . human recombinant interleukin ( il )- 1α and tumor necrosis factor ( tnf )- α were from r & amp ; d systems inc . ( minneapolis , minn . ), l - mevalonate was obtained from sigma , geranylgeranylpyrophosphate ( ggpp ) and farnesylpyrophosphate ( fpp ) were from biomol research laboratories inc . ( plymouth , pa . ), rho inhibitor y - 27632 was from calbiochem ( s . diego , calif .). simvastatin obtained from merk sharp & amp ; dohme ( rome , italy ) was activated to its active form by alkaline hydrolysis before use . briefly , 4 mg of simvastatin prodrug were dissolved in 8 ml of naoh 0 . 1 n / nacl 0 . 154 mol / l solution , and then incubated at 50 ° c . for 2 h . the ph was brought to 7 . 0 by hcl . the final concentration of the stock solution adjusted to 4 mg / ml and stored at − 20 ° c . ( 45 ). cell cultures . h9c2 cells purchased from american type culture collection ( atcc , rockville , md .) are spontaneously immortalized ventricular myoblasts from the rat embryo , with preservation of several electrical and biochemical characteristics found in adult cardiomyocytes . they were cultured in dmem medium ( atcc ) supplemented with 10 % heat - inactivated fetal bovine serum ( fbs ) in 95 % air and 5 % co 2 at 37 ° c . at subconfluence ( 70 - 80 %), h9c2 myoblasts cultured at petri dishes or 24 - well plates were pre - exposed to simvastatin and then stimulated with the proinflammatory cytokine , il - 1 - α or tnfα , in the presence or absence of isoprenoids , the intermediates or by - product from cholesterol synthesis , or mevalonate ( 10 − 4 mol / l ) ( 45 ). after certain time intervals , 100 μl / well culture media were collected for determination of nitrite production . the murine esc ( mesc ) line cce was obtained from american type culture collection ( atcc , rockville , md .). murine escs were cultured without feeder cells in dulbecco &# 39 ; s modified eagle &# 39 ; s medium supplemented with 10 % esc - qualified fetal bovine serum ( fbs ) ( stem cell technologies , vancouver , va . ), pyruvate ( stem cell technologies , stock solution diluted 1 : 100 ), 2 mm l - glutamine , nonessential amino acids ( stem cell technologies , stock solution diluted 1 : 100 ), 100 iu / ml penicillin , 0 . 1 mg / ml streptomycin , and leukemia inhibitory factor ( lif ) ( stem cell technologies ). to induce differentiation , ebs were formed from undifferentiated mescs in hanging drops of 400 cells in 20 μl of medium without lif . after 5 days in suspension , ebs were plated on gelatin - coated dishes and cultured in cardiomyocyte - differentiation medium ( iscove &# 39 ; s modified eagle &# 39 ; s medium , supplemented with 15 % fbs , 2 mm l - glutamine , 5 × 10 − 5 m β - mercaptoethanol , nonessential aminoacids , 100 iu / ml penicillin , 0 . 1 mg / ml streptomycin ). statin treatment . at plating on day zero , ebs were treated with simvastatin ( 10 − 1 - 10 − 6 mol / l ), which blocks hmg - coa reductase in the presence or absence of mevalonate ( 10 − 4 mol / l ). the inhibition of endogenous cholesterol synthesis was the mechanism used for analyzing the effect of endogenous cholesterol depletion on eb differentiation . by days 8 through 12 after plating , spontaneously contracting cell clusters could be observed within the eb outgrowths . culture media from both simvastatin - treated and untreated cells were changed each day after day 3 . the rat embryonic myogenic cell line h9c2 was commercially obtained from atcc and maintained in dulbecco &# 39 ; s modified eagle &# 39 ; s medium ( gibco ) supplemented with 10 % fbs at 37 ° c . in 95 % air and 5 % co 2 . at subconfluence ( 70 %- 80 %), h9c2 myoblasts cultured in petri dishes or 24 - well plates were pre - exposed to simvastatin ( 10 − 8 - 10 − 6 mol / l ) and then stimulated with the proinflammatory cytokine il - 1 - α ( 20 ng / ml ) for 24 hours in the presence or absence of mevalonate ( 10 − 4 mol / l ) ( 45 ). assay for no production . the activity of inos was determined in the culture medium by assaying nitrites , taken as an index of no production , using the griess reagent ( 1 % sulphanilic acid and 0 . 1 % n -[ 1 - naphtyl ] ethylenediamine - hcl in 5 % phosphoric acid ) as reported previously ( 4 , 18 , 19 ). equal volumes of medium and griess reagent were mixed , and the purple products quantified spectrophotometrically at 550 nm . nitrite concentrations were determined from a linear standard curve constructed with known concentrations of sodium nitrite ( 0 to 40 μmol / l nitrite ). immunoblotting . total proteins were isolated from rat cardiac myoblasts ( h9c2 cells ) or embryonic stem cells in an ice - cold lysis buffer containing 10 mmol / l tris ( tris ( hydroxymethyl ) aminomethane ) ( ph 7 . 4 ), 1 % sodium dodecyl sulfate ( sds ) and 1 × protease inhibitor ( 1 mmol / l sodium orthovanadate ). proteins ( 15 μg / lane ) were separated under the reducing conditions ( 125 mm tris ph 6 . 8 , 4 % sds , 10 % glycerol , 0 . 006 % bromophenol blue , 2 % β - mercaptoethanol ) by electrophoresis onto 5 - 10 % sds - polyacrylamide gel and electro - blotted to nitrocellulose membranes ( osmonics , westborough , mass .). the membranes were reversibly stained with ponceau red ( sigma ) to verify equal protein loading and / or transfer . after blocking in tris - buffered saline ( 0 . 2 m tris and 8 % nacl ) containing 5 % non - fat powdered milk and 0 . 1 % tween 20 for 1 hour at room temperature , the membranes were incubated overnight at 4 ° c . with following primary antibodies to ( a ) inos ( transduction laboratories , lexington , ky . ; bd biosciences ); ( b ) nf - κb p65 / rel ( santa cruz biotechnologies , santa cruz , calif . ); ( c ) ser 32 - phosphorylated inhibitor iκbα ( santa cruz ); ( d ) bad ( bd biosciences , san jose , calif . ); ( e ) bcl - x l ( bd biosciences ); ( f ) proliferating cell nuclear antigen ( pcna ; bc biosciences ); ( g ) ryanodine receptor ( santa cruze biotechnology , inc ., santa cruz , calif . ); ( h ) α - sarcomeric actinin ( sigma ); ( i ) myocardin a ( developed by immunizing rabbits with a synthetic myocardin a peptide ); ( j ) tie - 2 ( santa cruz ); ( k ) manganese superoxide dismutase ( santa cruz ); and ( 1 ) β - tubulin ( sigma ). the blots were incubated with horseradish peroxidase - coupled secondary antibodies , washed and developed by using a supersignal west pico chemiluminescent substrate kit ( pierce , rockford , ill .). intensity of each immunoreactive protein band was quantified by densitometric analysis . cytokine - stimulated raw 264 . 7 cells ( transduction laboratories , lexington , ky .) were used as positive controls . rna isolation and rt - pcr . total cellular rna was isolated by a single extraction using an acid guanidinium thiocyanate - phenol - chloroform method with modification as reported elsewhere ( 17 ). semi - quantitative multiplex reverse - transcription polymerase chain reaction ( rt - pcr ) was performed with a set of specific primers for inos . as the “ house - keeping ” controls , the 18s rrna was also analysed by rt - pcr . the pcr products were visualized and quantified using a computerized densitometric system ( biorad gel doc 1000 , milan , italy ). electrophoretic mobility gel shift assay . nuclear proteins were extracted from stimulated or unstimulated h9c2 cells . cells were harvested and homogenized with an ultra - turrax t25 - tissue homogenizer ( janke and kunkel ) in a low salt solution ( 0 . 6 % nonidet p - 40 [ np - 40 ], 150 mm nacl , 10 mm hepes ph 7 . 9 , 1 mm edta , 0 . 5 mm phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride [ pmsf ]), and centrifuged for 30 sec at 2000 rpm . the supernatant was incubated for 5 min on ice and then centrifuged for 5 min at 5000 rpm . the nuclei were resuspended in a high salt solution ( 25 % glycerol , 20 mm hepes ph 7 . 9 , 420 mm nacl , 1 . 2 mm mgcl 2 , 0 . 2 mm edta , 0 . 5 mm dtt , 0 . 5 mm pmsf , 2 mm benzamidine , 5 g / ml of each aprotinin , leupeptin and pepstatin ). protein concentrations were determined by mio - rad laboratories protein assay ( bio - rad laboratories inc , hercules , calif ., usa ). double - stranded synthetic oligonucleotides nfκb motif ( 5 ′- agt tga ggg gac ttt ccc agg c - 3 ′ and 5 ′- cct ggg aaa gtc ccc tca act - 3 ′) was labeled with [ γ - 32 p ]- atp . binding reactions containing 10 μg of crude nuclear extract were performed using the electrophoretic mobility gel shift assay core system ( promega , madison wis .) according to the manufacturer &# 39 ; s protocol . for supershift experiments , mouse monoclonal anti - nf - κb antibody ( 1 - 2 μg ) was added into the reaction . rho kinase assay . cell pellets were homogenized in lysis buffer ( 50 mm nacl , 50 mmol / l tris - hcl ph 8 . 0 , 0 . 1 % triton x - 100 , 0 . 5 mm edta , 1 mm egta , 1 μg / ml pepstatin , 1 μg / ml leupeptin , 2 mm naf , 2 mm sodium orthovanadate , 5 mm β - mercaptoethanol ). after the cell lysates were centrifuged at 30 . 000 g for 30 minutes , supernatants were collected and incubated ( 100 μl / well ) in 96 - well plates pre - coated with a substrate corresponding to the myosin - binding subunit of myosin phosphatase , which contains a threonin residue selectively phosphorylated by rho - kinase . plates were incubated with hrp conjugated antibody specific for phosphorylated proteins , and then incubated with the hrp - substrate yielding colored products , which were subsequently quantified by spectrophotomerty at 450 nm . purified rho kinase was used as the positive controls and the cell lysates from the cultures treated with the rho kinase inhibitor y27632 as the negative controls . assays for apoptosis . analysis of apoptotic cells was performed by fluorescent microscopy with fluorochromes acridine orange and ethidium bromide ( sigma ), as described previously ( 19 ). apoptotic cells were discernible by their condensed , fragmented nuclei stained with both fluorochromes and were counted under a fluorescence microscope ( olympus , center valley , pa .) connected to a computer imaging analysis station . nitrite assays . nitrite , a stable end - product of nitric oxide , was measured by using griess reagent ( 1 % sulphanilic acid and 0 . 1 % n -[ 1 - naphtyl ] ethylenediamine - hcl in 5 % phosphoric acid ). equal volumes of medium and griess reagent were mixed , and the resulting purple product quantified by spectrophotometric assay at 550 nm . nitrite concentrations were calculated from a linear standard curve constructed with known concentrations of sodium nitrite ( 0 - 14 μmol / l nitrite ) ( 19 ). statistical analysis . two - group comparisons were performed by the student &# 39 ; s t - test for unpaired values . comparisons of means of multiple groups were performed by analysis of variance ( anova ), and the existence of individual differences , in case of significant f values at anova , tested by scheffé &# 39 ; s multiple contrasts . transplantation of stem cells . in an animal model , statin - pretreated stem cells or myocytes are transplanted into a heart with or without infarction , using any suitable technique that is known in the art . it can then be determined whether the statin - pretreated stem cells or myocytes differentiate and / or survive better in an environment with inflammatory stimuli . for comparison , non - statin - pretreated stem cells or myocytes are similarly transplanted into a heart with or without infarction . echocardiography and ecg and patch - clamp studies . after transplantation of the stem cells , morphological and functional changes are monitored using echocardiography using any suitable method which is known in the art , such as those described in u . s . patent application ser . no . 11 / 252 , 260 , the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference . for example , in an animal model , 2d and m - mode echocardiography may be performed after transplantation , e . g ., at one , two , and four weeks . electrophysiological changes are important features of cardiac dysfunction during myocardial infarction or ischemic heart failure . to characterize the electrophysiological alterations in the infarcted heart with statin - pretreated stem cell transplantation , any suitable methods may be used . two such approaches are ( 1 ) in vivo study with electrocardiogram ( ecg ), and ( 2 ) in vitro study with the patch - clamp technique to measure ion channel functions . 1 . simvastatin inhibits inos expression and nitrite production in cardiac myoblasts induced by proinflammatory cytokines . exposure to il - 1α ( 20 ng / ml ) or tnf - α ( 20 ng / ml ) significantly increased the levels of inos mrna in h9c2 cardiac myoblasts ( fig1 ), when compared those in normal , untreated h9c2 cells . in order to determine whether statins affect inos expression in embryonic cardiac cells , simvastatin was added into the cell cultures simultaneously with the cytokines . it was observed that in a concentration - dependent fashion , simvastatin markedly diminished expression of inos mrna in h9c2 cells stimulated with the proinflammatory cytokines ( fig1 ). under the same concentrations , both il - 1α and tnf - α stimulated cells showed a similar response to simvastatin in terms of inos mrna expression . in the presence of simvastatin , il - 1α treated cells showed a dose - dependent decline in inos mrna to the same or similar degrees as that in tnf - α treated cells ( fig1 ). thus , simvastatin reduced steady - state levels of inos mrna in h9c2 cardiac myoblasts stimulated with the proinflammatory cytokines . further analysis of inos protein expression by immunoblotting with antibodies against inos confirmed the presence of high levels of inos expression in h9c2 cardiac myoblasts stimulated with il - 1α and tnf - α . intense protein bands immunoreactive to anti - inos antibody corresponding to a molecular mass of 130 kda were detected in the cytokine - stimulated h9c2 cells ( fig2 a - b ). at the same concentrations , both the proinflammatory cytokines exerted stimulatory effects on inos protein expression in the cells . interestingly , consistent to its effect on inos mrna expression , simvastatin ( 10 − 8 - 10 − 5 mol / l ) reduced expression of inos protein in h9c2 cells stimulated with il - 1α ( fig2 a and c ) as well as tnf - α ( fig2 b and d ). thus , treatment with simvastatin inhibited expression of both inos mrna and protein in cardiac myoblasts induced by proinflammatory cytokines . in order to further verify the statin inhibitory effect on inos gene expression , the accumulation of nitrite , a stable no end - product reflecting the nos activities , in the cultures treated with or without il - 1α and simvastatin was examined . under the baseline condition without cytokine stimulation , h9c2 cells generated nitrite at the rates of approximately 0 . 8 μmol / 10 5 cells / 24 h ( fig3 ). stimulation with il - 1α ( 20 ng / ml ) markedly increased nitrite production . the rates of nitrite production were more than 3 . 5 μmol / 10 5 cells / 24 h in the cytokine - stimulated cells for the period of incubation from 24 to 48 h ( p & lt ; 0 . 05 ). simvastatin ( up to 10 − 6 mol / l ) significantly diminished the cytokine - induced nitrite production in h9c2 cells ( fig3 ). the range of simvastatin concentrations leading to inhibition of nitrite production in cytokine - stimulated cells is comparable to the plasma levels of the drug in patients treated ( 20 ). thus , at the pharmacological doses , simvastatin markedly reduced production of nitrite by h9c2 cells stimulated with the pro - inflammatory cytokines . 2 . l - mevalonate mediates the simvastatin inhibitory effect on inos expression in cardiac myoblasts . generated by hmg coa reductase , l - mevalonate serves as a key intermediate of cholesterol synthesis from acetyl - coa . in order to determine whether the statin inhibition of inos gene expression occurred through blocking the hmg coa reductase activity or reduction in l - mevalonate synthesis , exogenous l - mevalonate was added into the cultures of h9c2 cells with il - 1α ( 20 ng / ml ) in the presence or absence of simvastatin ( 10 − 6 mol / l ). it was observed that addition of l - mevalonate in excess amounts significantly increased the nitrite concentrations in the cultures of h9c2 cells exposed to a combination of il - 1α and simvastatin ( fig3 ). examination of inos protein by immunoblotting revealed that l - mevalonate diminished the inhibitory effect of simvastatin by increasing inos protein expression in h9c2 cells treated with simvastatin plus il - 1α ( fig4 a and c ) or tnf - α ( fig4 b and d ). in the absence of simvastatin , l - mevalonate had no or little effect on cytokine - induced inos expression in h9c2 cells ( fig4 ), suggesting that l - mevalonate selectively blocked the simvastatin inhibitory effect on cytokine induction of inos in cardiac myoblasts . because there was no major difference in induction of inos expression between il - 1α and tnf - α treated cells , the following experiments with simvastatin were mainly performed on the cells stimulated with il - 1α . 3 . the isoprenoid intermediate ggpp , but not fpp , blocks simvastatin inhibitory effect on inos expression . in addition to l - mevalonate , several downstream intermediates or by - products from the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway ( 21 ) may contribute to the inhibitory effect of simvastatin on expression of inos protein and activities . to exhaust the endogenous intermediates and by - products from cholesterol synthesis , h9c2 cells were pretreated with simvastatin ( 10 − 8 to 10 − 7 mol / l ) up to 24 h , and then stimulated the cells with il - 1α ( 20 ng / ml ) in the presence or absence of the isoprenoid intermediates , such as ggpp and fpp . immunoblotting showed that addition of ggpp ( 10 − 7 to 10 − 5 mol / l ) reversed the simvastatin - mediated suppression of the cytokine - induced expression of inos protein ( fig5 a - b ) and nitrite production ( fig5 c ) at almost the same levels to those in the l - mevalonate treated cells . in contrast , however , treatment with fpp at the same concentrations as ggpp did not alter nitrite accumulation in the cells pretreated with simvastatin and then il - 1α ( fig5 c ). these results suggested that ggpp but not fpp directly appeared to reverse the statin - induced inhibition of inos expression in the cardiac myoblasts stimulated with il - 1α . 4 . rho kinase contributes to statin inhibitory effect on inos expression in cardiac myoblasts treated with il - 1α . the rho family of small gtp - binding proteins consists of three subfamilies , rho , rac and cdc42 , which play important roles in signal transduction and cell cycle regulation ( 22 , 23 ). the intermediate derivative of l - mevalonate , ggpp , acts as a lipid attachment to the rho proteins , while fpp mainly targets ras . therefore , it was investigated whether the rho kinase mediates the simvastatin effect on inos expression . the rho kinase inhibitor y - 27632 ( 24 ) specifically inactivates p160rock , a key subunit of this kinase , known to regulate no synthesis ( 11 ). it was tested whether y - 27632 affects inos expression in il - 1 treated h9c2 cells . it was observed that inhibition of rho kinase with y - 27632 ( 10 − 6 to 10 − 5 mol / l ) did not alter cytokine - induced inos protein expression in h9c2 cells ( fig6 a ). however , the rho kinase inhibitor almost abolished the inhibitory effect of simvastatin on inos protein expression ( fig6 a ). assessment of nitrite production indicated that y - 27632 dose - dependently increased the inos activity in the cytokine - treated h9c2 cells , suggesting the involvement of post - translational modification by rho kinase in regulation of inos activities . interestingly , in the presence of y - 27632 , simvastatin treatment reduced neither nos protein expression ( fig6 a ) nor nitrite accumulation ( fig6 b ). the reversal of the statin - induced nitrite reduction by y - 27632 occurred to the same extents as seen in the cells treated with l - mevalonate ( fig6 b ). to further confirm that rho kinase a participates in the statin suppression of inos expression , the rho kinase a bioactivities in h9c2 cells treated with both il - 1α and simvastatin was testedf by using enzymatic assays . it was found that simvastatin dose - dependently reduced rho mediated protein phosphorylation ( fig6 c ), although the inhibitory effect appeared less striking than that of y - 27632 . thus , rho kinase activation might be involved in the downstream events for simvastatin inhibition of inos expression . 5 . simvastatin inactivates nf - κb through elevation of intracellular iκb in cardiac myoblasts stimulated with cytokines . the nuclear transcription factor nf - κb binds to the inos gene promoter critical for inos gene transcription ( 25 ). the effect of simvastatin on il - 1α - induced activation of nf - κb in h9c2 cells was tested by using the gel - shift assay with a 32 p - end - labelled nf - κb oligonucleotide . the nuclear proteins extracted from serum - starved h9c2 cells showed a stronger nf - κb activity after stimulation by il - 1α for 15 min ( fig7 a ). the specificity of the nf - κb dna - protein complex formation was verified by competition with unlabelled , cold oligonucleotides and by addition of anti - nf - κb antibody which led to the bands for the nf - κb - dna complexes super - shifted ( fig7 a ). in addition , there was no significant binding with the oligonucleotide probe alone or by omitting protein substrate or using the nuclear protein extract from the unstimulated h9c2 cells . in the subsequent experiments , the cells were treated with 1 μm of simvastatin before il - 1α stimulation . a time - dependent decline in nf - κb - dna binding was found ( fig7 a , lane 7 to 10 ). simvastatin treatment for 24 hours markedly inhibited il - 1α - induced activation of nf - κb ( fig7 a , lane 11 ) ( p & lt ; 0 . 001 vs il - 1α - stimulated cells ). inclusion of antibody to nf - κb in the binding reactions resulted in a further reduction in the il - 1α - induced mobility of the complex ( fig7 a , lane 12 ). the reduction in the nuclear nf - κb activity did not appear to be due to overall inhibition of expression of this transcription factor by the statin , as immunoblotting analysis of total cellular nf - κb levels showed no significant difference between simvastatin - treated or untreated cells with cytokine stimulation ( fig7 b and c ). the potential mechanism underlying the simvastatin inhibitory effect on nf - κb activation was delineated by performing immunoblotting analysis on the same nuclear protein extracts from il - 1α - stimulated h9c2 cells with an antibody specific for the p65 subunit of nf - κb . a time - dependent decrease in the p65 nf - κb protein nuclear translocation with pretreatment with simvastatin ( fig7 d and f ) was observed . the statin - suppressed nf - κb nuclear translocation was clearly related to the hmg coa reductase activity since addition of l - mevalonate could elevate the nuclear p65 / rel protein levels in the statin - treated , cytokine - stimulated cells ( fig7 e and g ). in addition , the rho kinase inhibitor y - 27632 showed no major effect on the nuclear nf - κb translocation . although y - 27632 ( 10 − 4 mol / l ) reversed the statin inhibitory effect on inos activities , this rho kinase inhibitor did not influence the nuclear p65 translocation as there was no difference in the nuclear p65 concentration between the cells treated with and without y - 27632 in the presence of il - 1α ( fig7 e and g ). these observations suggest a discrepancy between l - mevalonate and the rho inhibitor in regulating the statin modulation of inos expression and activation in the cytokine - stimulated cells . 6 . simvastatin increases the phosphorylated iκbα in the cytosol without subsequent degradation . under the physiological conditions , nf - κb is sequestered as an inactive form in the cytosol through non - covalent interactions with inhibitory proteins , such as iκbα , β and ε . each iκb isoform contains , in its n - terminal region , a pair of serine residues . in the case of iκbα , these serine residues ( amino acids 32 and 36 ) become phosphorylated by a serine - specific kinase following stimulation . phosphorylation does not disassociate iκbα from nf - κb but renders iκbα a substrate for ubiquitination and then degradation by the 26s proteasome . in order to provide further insight into the regulatory role of simvastatin , by immunoblotting with a specific antibody to iκbα , the il - 1α - induced degradation of iκbα phosphorylated at ser − 32 was examined in the presence or absence of simvastatin . after 15 minutes treatment with 20 ng / ml il - 1α , a decrease in the cellular content of ser 32 - phosphorylated iκbα in h9c2 cells was detected ( fig8 ). however , pretreatment with simvastatin ( 10 − 8 to 10 − 6 mol / l ) reversed the il - 1α induced decline in the levels of ser 32 - phosphorylated iκbα in a dose - dependent manner ( fig8 ). the highest levels of the phosphorylated iκbα were detected in h9c2 cells exposed to the statin at 10 − 7 mol / l for 24 h ( fig8 ). the increased accumulation of phosphorylated iκbα in the simvastatin - treated cells implicates a prolonged lifespan or a lower rate of degradation of phosphorylated iκb protein that inactivates nf - κb . hesc grown in dmem media with 10 % fetal bovin serum and a group of growth factors were induced to differentiate in a hang - drop 3d cell culture system . hescs from two ( h1 or h9 ) lines were cultured with a mouse fetal fibroblast feeder layer . after forming ebs in the hanging - drop 3d system they were replated in 12 - well plates . cardiovascular phenotypic development was observed in many of the ebs , in which the colonies with beating myocytes developed spontaneously ( fig1 ). surrounding the beating colonies , the cells developed a blood vessel - like structure ( fig1 ). using the edge - motion detection technique , a single beating myogenic cell within the developing ebs was recorded . this provides a functional marker showing the differentiational potential in cardiomyogenesis . expression of β - adrenergic receptors in the developing ebs was evaluated by incubating with the agonist isoproterenol at 10 ng / ml and / or antagonist propanolol at 25 ng / ml . mesc - derived ebs with beating myocytes responded to isoproterenol by marked increased contraction in both frequency and ampltitute ( fig1 ). addition of propanolol almost abolished the isoproterenol stimulatory effect , suggesting that the stimulatory effect occurred via β - receptor . cholesterol is essential for cellular membrane structure , metabolism and function . cholesterol depletion is lethal to embryogenesis in animals . cholesterol synthesis is highly regulated by protein phosphorylation and ubiquitination and by sterol - sensitive , srebp - mediated transcriptional regulation . several enzymes involved in cholesterol synthesis and metabolism are regulated by the ubiquitin - proteasome system , including hmg - coa reductase and srebps , which are key proteins for cholesterol synthesis . proteins were extracted from undifferentiated ( day 0 ) murine and human escs as well as differentiated ( day 10 - 40 ). immunoblotting with anti - ubiquitin antibodies ( bd - bioscience ) revealed weaker bands of ubiquitinated proteins in both murine and human esc at day 0 than those of differentiated murine ( day 10 ) and human ( day 40 ) esc ( fig1 ). control loading with anti - b - actin antibody displayed no difference in the β - actin band intensity between the two pairs of cell groups . thus , protein ubiquitination is more active in undifferentiated escs than that in the differentiated ones . the mevalonate pathway leading to cholesterol synthesis also generates non - sterol isoprenoids that have profound biological impacts on various cellular functions , including protein prenylation important for cross - membrane signal transduction and transcriptional regulation . to determine whether protein ubiquitination has any impact on eb formation , hescs were cultured in hanging - drops with the proteasomal inhibitor mg132 at 100 nm , and then plated in regular culture for 1 - 2 days . the untreated hesc - derived eb appeared more compact and firmly connected , while the treated eb spread out and surrounded by differentiated cells ( fig1 ). hence , mg - 132 inhibition helped the cell differentiation , suggesting the involvement of ubiquitination in the stem cell differentiation . 10 . conversion of 7 - ketocholesterol to cholesterol in human hek 293 embryonic kidney cells with overexpression of apolipoprotein - j ( apoj ). several embryonic cell lines were recently established with overexpression of apolipoprotein - j , also known as clusterin . incubation of the cells with radioactive [ 3 h ]- 7 - ketocholesterol ( 0 . 5 μci / ml ) for 24 hrs led to increased radioactivity in the cells significantly , indicating the uptake of this sterol ( fig1 ). high performance liquid chromatography ( hplc ) was performed to separate the cellular and medial lipids , and the radioactivity was measured in the cell lipid extract as well as in culture media . as expected , [ 3 h ]- 7 - ketocholesterol was found in the cells and media at the elution time of about 9 min . interestingly , free [ 3 h ]- cholesterol eluted at nearly 20 min was also detected in the cells but this signal was almost undetectable in the media ( fig1 ). this suggests that the embryonic cells with apoj overexpression had converted an active metabolism which might convert 7 - ketocholesterol into cholesterol . 11 . inhibition of cholesterol esterization by acat induces apoptosis associated with cholesterol transport . it was tested whether cholesterol accumulation can induce apoptosis in cells treated with the acyl coenzyme - a : cholesterol acyltransferase ( acat ) inhibitor cp - 113 , 818 . in situ labeling of dna fragments were analyzed in murine macrophages treated with the inhibitors using the tunel technique . an increase in the number of tunel positive cells as a function of the length of incubation of the acldl - preloaded cells with the acat inhibitor cp - 113 , 818 was observed ( fig1 ). however , when treated simultaneously with the hydrophobic amine u18666a , an intracellular cholesterol transport inhibitor and cp - 113 , 818 , the number of tunel positive cells appearing over time was greatly reduced . u18666a alone had no effect on the number of cells bearing this marker of apoptosis when compared to untreated controls . these tunel positive cells showed nuclear morphology typical of apoptosis , including nuclear chromatin condensation and fragmentation . few tunel positive cells were detected in untreated control and in cultures treated with cp - 113 , 818 plus u18666a for 24 h . thus , inhibition of cholesterol transport with u18666a blocked the apoptotic effect of the acat inhibitor . 12 . the hmg - coa reductase inhibitor statin inhibits inos expression in embryonic cardiac myoblasts induced by proinflammatory cytokines . in order to determine whether statins affect inos expression in embryonic cardiac cells , simvastatin was added into the cell cultures simultaneously with the cytokines . it was observed that in a concentration - dependent fashion , simvastatin markedly diminished expression of inos mrna in h9c2 cells stimulated with the proinflammatory cytokines ( fig1 ). under the same concentrations , both il - 1α and tnf - α stimulated cells showed a similar response to simvastatin in terms of inos mrna expression . in the presence of simvastatin , il - 1α treated cells showed a dose - dependent decline in inos mrna to the same or similar degrees as that in tnf - α treated cells . thus , simvastatin reduced steady - state levels of inos mrna in h9c2 cardiac myoblasts stimulated with the proinflammatory cytokines . 13 . the isoprenoid intermediate ggpp blocks simvastatin inhibitory effect on inos expression . in addition to l - mevalonate , several downstream intermediates or by - products from the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway may contribute to the inhibitory effect of simvastatin on expression of inos protein and activities . h9c2 cells were pretreated with simvastatin ( 10 − 8 to 10 − 7 mol / l ) up to 24 h , and then stimulated the cells with il - 1α ( 20 ng / ml ) in the presence or absence of the isoprenoid intermediates , such as ggpp and fpp . immunoblotting showed that addition of ggpp ( 10 − 7 to 10 − 5 mol / l ) reversed the simvastatin - mediated suppression of the cytokine - induced expression of inos protein ( fig1 a - b ) at almost the same levels to those in the l - mevalonate treated cells . in contrast , however , treatment with fpp at the same concentrations as ggpp did not alter nitrite accumulation in the cells pretreated with simvastatin and then il - 1α ( not shown ). these results suggested that ggpp but not fpp appeared to directly reverse the statin - induced inhibition of inos expression in the cardiac myoblasts stimulated with il - 1α . the nuclear transcription factor nf - κb binds to the inos gene promoter critical for inos gene transcription . the effect of simvastatin on il - 1α - induced activation of nf - κb in h9c2 cells was examined by using the gel - shift assay with a 32 p - end - labelled nf - κb oligonucleotide . the nuclear proteins extracted from serum - starved h9c2 cells showed a stronger nf - κb activity after stimulation by il - 1α for 15 min ( fig1 .). the specificity of the nf - κb dna - protein complex formation was verified by competition with unlabelled , cold oligonucleotides and by addition of anti - nf - κb antibody which super - shifted the bands of nf - κb - dna complexes ( fig1 .). in addition , there was no significant binding with the oligonucleotide probe alone or by omitting protein substrate or using the nuclear protein extract from the unstimulated h9c2 cells . in the subsequent experiments , the cells were treated with 1 μm of simvastatin before il - 1α stimulation . a time - dependent decline in nf - κb - dna binding was found ( fig1 , lane 7 to 10 ). simvastatin treatment for 24 hours markedly inhibited il - 1α - induced activation of nf - κb ( fig1 , lane 11 ) ( p & lt ; 0 . 001 vs il - 1α - stimulated cells ). inclusion of antibody directed against nf - κb in the binding reactions resulted in a further reduction in the il - 1α - induced mobility of the complex ( fig1 , lane 12 ). the reduction in the nuclear nf - κb activity did not appear to be due to overall inhibition of expression of this transcription factor by the statin , as immunoblotting analysis of total cellular nf - κb levels showed no significant difference between simvastatin - treated or untreated cells with cytokine stimulation . under the physiological conditions , nf - κb is sequestered as an inactive form in the cytosol through non - covalent interactions with inhibitory proteins , such as iκbα , β and ε . each iκb isoform contains , in its n - terminal region , a pair of serine residues . in the case of iκbα , these serine residues ( amino acids 32 and 36 ) become phosphorylated by a serine - specific kinase following stimulation . phosphorylation does not disassociate iκbα from nf - κb but renders iκbα a substrate for ubiquitination and then degradation by the 26s proteasome . in order to provide further insight into the regulatory role of simvastatin , by immunoblotting with a specific antibody to iκb , the il - 1α - induced degradation of iκbα phosphorylated at ser 32 in the presence or absence of simvastatin was observed . after 15 minutes treatment with 20 ng / ml il - 1α , a decrease in the cellular content of ser 32 - phosphorylated iκbα in h9c2 cells was observed . however , in the cytokine - stimulated cells , pretreatment of with simvastatin ( 10 − 8 to 10 − 6 mol / l ) increased the levels of ser 32 - phosphorylated iκbα in a dose - dependent manner ( fig1 ). the highest levels of the phosphorylated iκbα were detected in h9c2 cells exposed to the statin at 10 − 7 mol / l for 24 h ( fig1 ). the increased accumulation of phosphorylated iκbα in the simvastatin - treated cells implicates a prolonged lifespan or a lower rate of degradation of phosphorylated iκb protein that inactivates nf - κb . it was tested whether statin treatment has any impact on myogenesis in embryonic stem cells . western blot was conducted in simvastatin - treated and untreated murine embryonic stem cells with monoclonal antibodies against cardiac sarcomeric α - actinin . stem cells were cultured in a hanging drop system for 4 days and then transferred to petric dishes for further development . a dose - dependent increase in cardiac myogenesis was found , evidenced by increased expression of cardiac sarcomeric α - actinin ( fig2 ) and appearance of contractile myocytes ( fig2 ). the induction of beating myocytes in the statin - treated escs could be partially blocked by l - mevalonate . cholesterol synthesis generates non - sterol isoprenoid intermediates as by - products , which can promote protein prenylation as well as signal transduction potentially important for stem cell growth , survival and differentiation as well as atherosclerosis and inflammation ( 62 - 64 , 83 , 84 ). abnormal synthesis and metabolism of cholesterol may cause certain severe pathological conditions . for instance , hypercholesterolemia is a causitive risk factor for atherosclerosis ( 85 ), a chronic arterial disease with life - threatening complications , namely myocardial and cerebral infarctions , which is the leading cause of death in the united states , while hypocholesterolemia characterizes the smith - lemli - opitz syndrome ( slos ) ( 75 , 76 , 85 ), a recessive autosomal genetic disease characterized by a deficit in cholesterol production with a series of malformations ( microcephaly , corpus callosum agenesis , holoprosencephaly , and mental retardation ), male pseudohermaphroditism , finger anomalies , and failure to thrive . little is known , however , about the potential role of cholesterol biosynthesis and metabolism in regulation of hesc function , and the hesc pluripotency in growth , survival and differentiation . it is proposed that hescs undergo active cholesterol synthesis and metabolism , and that regulation of the production of cholesterol and its derivatives plays a critical role for the maintenance of hesc pluripotency in proliferation , survival and differentiation under both physiological or pathophysiological conditions . at least some of the existing cholesterol - lowering drug statins may have potentially beneficial effects on hescs , apart from their customery use . millions of patients are taking one of the statin drugs now for prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis , but the biosafety of this hmg - coa reductase inhibitor is still a concern among health providers and patients . in this regard , hescs provide a highly valuable model for testing the effect of statins on human embryonic development . because the isoprenoids prenylate a number of membrane - bound or receptor - associated proteins important for cell signal transduction , it is now proposed for the first time that one or more non - sterol isoprenoid intermediate of cholesterol synthesis or mevanolate / isoprenoid pathway inhibitors will be potentially useful as a therapeutic drug , and can be used in combination with stem cell therapy . the intermediate compounds geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate ( ppgg ) and geranyl pyrophosphate ( pgg ), for example , are expected to modulate apoptosis in stem cells , myoblasts and other cells by isoprenoid - mediated signaling transduction . potential applications include protective effects for stem cells , and treatment of a variety of degenerative diseases , wound healing and cancer treatment . it is expected that further analysis of prenylated membrane proteins and cell signaling in hescs will demonstrate the feasibility of this approach to development of this type of new , non - sterol therapeutic compounds . spontaneous cardiac differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells ( mescs ) was assessed in vitro as the presence of rhythmically beating embryonic blastocyst ( eb ) outgrowth . to determine the effects of cholesterol depletion on differentiation by blocking the hmg - coa reductase activity with statin , some cultures were supplemented with simvastatin ( 10 − 8 - 10 − 6 mol / l ) after plating the ebs from the hanging drops ( day zero ). thereafter , eb outgrowths were counted periodically under the inverted microscope equipped with a digital video camera , to determine whether or not they contained beating foci at different time points ( days 3 , 5 , 7 , 10 , 12 , and 14 ). at approximately day 7 , contracting areas began to appear . there was no major difference in the size and beating foci between the simvastatin - treated and untreated ebs , indicating that the statin treatment did not prevent eb formation and early myogenesis . at day 12 , simvastatin exposure increased the percentage of beating eb outgrowths ( 42 ± 0 . 1 %) compared to that of the untreated control ebs ( 18 ± 0 . 1 %) ( fig2 a ). concomitant with the increased number of beating ebs , the size of the beating area for simvastatin - treated ebs increased 2 - fold ( evaluated at day 12 ) compared to that of untreated control ebs , a significant augmentation ( p & lt ; 0 . 05 ) ( fig2 b ). to determine whether the statin induction of contracting ebs occurred by blocking the hmg - coa reductase activity or inhibiting l - mevalonate synthesis ( a key intermediate of cholesterol synthesis from acetyl - coa ), exogenous l - mevalonate was added into the cultures of ebs in the presence or absence of 10 − 6 mol / l simvastatin . it was observed that adding excess l - mevalonate significantly decreased the incidence of beating foci in the ebs exposed to simvastatin — without any cytotoxicity ( fig2 a ). however , in the absence of simvastatin , l - mevalonate had no or little effect on contracting ebs ( fig2 a ), suggesting that l - mevalonate selectively blocked the simvastatin stimulatory effect on cardiac differentiation . all analyzed eb outgrowths showed a similar developmental pattern with contracting cells first appearing at the periphery of eb outgrowths . to establish the phenotypic characteristics of eb outgrowths , expression of cardiac - specific proteins was assessed by immunoblotting with antibodies against sarcomeric α - actinin and myocardin a , a key regulator of cardiac myogenesis ( 57 ). by day 12 , in a dose - dependent fashion , simvastatin treatment increased expression of both sarcomeric α - actinin ( fig2 a and c ) and myocardin a ( fig2 b and d ), while the statin had little impact ( not shown ) on expression of tie - 2 , an endothelian cell - specific protein potentially important for vascular tissue formation ( 58 ). under the same cell culture conditions specific for cardiomyocyte differentiation , untreated ebs showed modest expression of sarcomeric α - actinin , and myocardin a ( fig2 a , 23b ). thus , treatment with simvastatin appeared to enhance expression of cardiac - specific proteins in a concentration - dependent manner . the range of simvastatin concentrations leading to induction of cardiac differentiation is comparable to the drug plasma levels in patients treated with the statin ( 20 ). 19 . effects of simvastatin on apoptosis of embryonic myoblasts induced by il - 1 it was previously demonstrated that simvastatin treatment can attenuate inos expression and no synthesis in cytokine - stimulated embryonic cardiac myoblasts ( 45 ). because the high output of no production is pro - apoptotic , it was hypothesized whether simvastatin can increase the resistance of myogenic cells against apoptosis induced by il - 1 , a proinflammatory cytokine . the committed h9c2 embryonic myoblasts were pretreated with simvastatin ( 10 − 7 - 10 − 6 mol / l ), and then il - 1 ( 20 ng / ml ) was added into the cultures to trigger apoptosis . the proapoptotic protein bad and anti - apoptotic protein bcl - x l ( 59 , 60 ) wwere analyzed by immunoblotting . in the cells without statin treatment , il - 1 reduced expression of the anti - apoptotic protein bcl - x l but had no significant effects on bad expression ( fig2 a and 24b ). adding simvastatin ( 10 − 7 - 10 − 6 mol / l ) significantly diminished the il - 1 inhibitory effects . the simvastatin effect appeared to be mediated by the mevalonate pathway because adding l - mevalonate reversed the statin effect ( fig2 b ). the proliferating cell nuclear antigen was also down - regulated by il - 1 treatment , which could be partially blocked by adding simvastatin under a mechanism controlled by mevalonate ( fig2 c ). treatment with simvastatin significantly diminished expression of inos ( fig2 a ) and mnsod ( fig2 b ). furthermore , it was examined whether simvastatin exerts protective effects against apoptosis induced with il - 1 by staining with the fluorochromes acridine orange and ethidium bromide in h9c2 embryonic myoblasts . in untreated cells , low rates ( less than 5 %) of apoptosis occurred spontaneously ( fig2 , panel a ). however , exposure to the cytokine for a prolonged period of time led to increased apoptosis ( fig5 , panel b ). incubation with il - 1 ( 20 ng / ml ) for 48 to 72 hours induced significant elevation of cell death by 2 - to 3 - fold ( p & lt ; 0 . 05 ). interestingly , in agreement with a previous finding ( 45 ), simvastatin significantly increased cell viability and reduced numbers of apoptotic cells in the cultures with il - 1 ( fig2 , panels c - e ). the simvastatin cytoprotective effect was diminished by l - mevalonate ( fig2 , panel f ). thus , simvastatin may not only induce myogenic differentiation but also protect differentiated cardiac cells and premature embryonic cardiomyoblasts against cytokine - induced apoptosis . simvastatin is a representative statin with biological activities shared by other statins , such as atorvastatin , cerivastatin , fluvastatin , lovastatin , mevastatin , pitavastatin , rosuvastatin , and ezetimibe , which are expected to provide effects similar to those described above . the embryonic h9c2 cardiac myoblast model has been used widely to study cardiac stem cell development and differentiation . highly resembling premature cardiac myogenic cells , h9c2 cells show well - characterized cardiac properties in electrophysiology as well as in cellular receptor and signal transduction ( 26 , 27 ). it is notable that the embryonic h9c2 cardiac myoblasts can constitutively express inos as well as enos at low levels under the normal cell culture . the constitutively expressed , moderate nos activities may reflect the role of no in intracellular signalling of undifferentiated , premature myoblasts . bloch et al . ( 28 , 29 ) have reported that both inos and enos exist in e9 . 5 rat and murine embryos , correlated with high expression of soluble guanylylcyclase as well as a high cyclic gmp content . the no production mediated by the nos isoforms present constitutively in the cardiac myogenic cells contributes to cardiomyogenesis , since continuous incubation of ebs with the nos inhibitors results in a pronounced differentiation arrest in the premature cardiomyocytes , and coapplication of no - donors reverses the inhibitory effect . however , the high - output , persistent no production via overexpression of inos induced by proinflammatory cytokines may have deteriorating effects on cardiac cells ( 8 , 13 ). in this study , it was shown that the h9c2 premature cardiac cell line is sensitive to stimulation of proinflammatory cytokines such as il - 1α and tnfα . the high levels of inos expression and no production in this premature , delicate myocyte progenitor suggests a vulnerability of cardiac stem cells to the proinflammatory environment of the hearts with acute infarction or ischemic injury . because the high output of no production causes cardiac cell dysfunction and even apoptotic cell death , inhibition of inos expression may have benefit impacts on the stem cell survival and differentiation . increased resistance to proinflammatory or pro - apoptotic insults may represent a key factor that leads to a successful cardiac stem cell therapy . current data from the in vitro studies provide clear evidence that the cholesterol - lowering drugs , statins , can regulate inos expression . the statin regulatory effect on inos expression appears through specific inhibition of hmg coa reductase , reversibly blocked by excess amounts of l - mevalonate . the statin effect seems however independent of the statin - mediated reduction in cholesterol synthesis because addition of exogenous cholesterol does not prevent the statin effect . the concentrations for simvastatin achieving its inhibitory effect are as low as 10 − 8 mol / l . the dosage of 10 − 8 - 10 − 6 mol / l is close to the range of the expected plasma levels of simvastatin in clinical application ( 20 ). this suggests that statins , at the current therapeutic dosages , may block inos expression during inflammation . in this study , the mechanism by which statins regulate inos expression was demonstrated , showing that simvastatin acts multilaterally at different phases of inos expression , and on the levels of mrna , protein and enzymatic activities . recently , the isoprenoid intermediates , including ggpp and fpp , have been implicated in contributing to the statin regulatory effects on expression of nos expression . this is largely due to the fact that addition of ggpp significantly can diminish the statin - inhibitory effect . it has been previously demonstrated that , in addition to reducing hepatic cholesterol biosynthesis by inhibiting hmg coa reductase , statins may display biological activities associated with depletion of l - mevalonate as well as biologically active isoprenoid intermediates . some of the isoprenoids ( e . g ., ggpp ) play an important role in the covalent attachment to cell membranes , subcellular localization , and intracellular trafficking of membrane - associated proteins , including regulating endothelial cell function ( 30 ). in this study it was observed that the addition of ggpp , but not fpp , prevented the inhibitory effect of simvastatin on cytokine - induced inos expression and activity , indicating that the inhibition of post - translational geranylgeranylation , but not of farnesylation , can be related to the inhibitory effect of simvastatin on cytokine - induced inos expression in the premature myoblasts . the rho proteins ( 23 ) are a group of small gtp - binding molecules involved in the control of nos protein expression and turnover in cardiovascular cells ( 11 , 31 , 32 ). the members of the rho family including rhoa , rhob , rac and cdc42 proteins are normally geranylgeranylated , whereas ras proteins are predominantly farnesylated . current data from the studies with the rho kinase inhibitor point to the involvement of rho proteins in simvastatin - associated inos inhibition in premature cardiac myoblasts . rho kinase activation has been implicated to reduce inos activities . in this study , it was found that inhibition of rho kinase with y - 27632 enhances no production in cytokine - stimulated h9c2 cells . furthermore , with enzymatic assays , it was demonstrated that the statin treatment can reduce the rho kinase activity as well . this finding is consistent with previous reports that lipid - soluble statins ( e . g ., lovastatin , simvastatin , and atorvastatin ) inhibit the rho kinase activity ( 33 ). however , from the data generated in this study , the simvastatin treatment did not appear to cause superinduction but suppression of inos expression by il - 1 in h9c2 cells , unlike the previous study conducted in vascular smooth muscle cells ( 33 ). the different statin effects between the embryonic cardiac myoblasts and mature smooth muscle cells may reflect the fact that different signal transduction pathways may operate in different types of cells . pretreatment with lovastatin , an inhibitor of protein prenylation , resulted in superinduction of inos . this superinduction can be reversed by geranylgeraniol , but not by farnesol , suggesting that inhibition of geranylgeranylation , not farnesylation , is responsible for enhanced inos expression . the results demonstrate that a farnesylated protein ( s ) mediates il - 1beta induction of inos , whereas a geranylgeranylated protein ( s ) represses this induction . also , by modulating ras farnesyl protein transferase , lovastatin blocks lps - induced inos expression in rat primary astrocytes in a manner reversible by l - mevalonate and farnesylpyrophosphate ( 14 ). however , on the contrary , treatment with cerivastatin and fluvastatin was recently reported to enhance cytokine induction of no synthesis in rat vascular smooth muscle cells ( 16 ). an increase in il - 1β - induced nitrite production and apoptosis in adult cardiac myocytes may occur after treatment with very high concentrations ( 10 − 5 and 10 − 4 mol / l ) of fluvastatin through inhibition of rho - associated kinase ( 34 , 35 ). in addition , there have been reports showing that statin treatment may induce apoptosis of vascular cells ( 35 - 37 ). however , in the present system , no appreciable cell death via apoptosis was observed in the statin - treated cardiac myoblasts , regardless of the presence or absence of the proinflammatory cytokines . recent studies ( 38 , 39 ) have also demonstrated that statin treatment can increase numbers of circulating endothelial cell progenitors , suggesting that statins are cytoprotective rather than cytotoxic to the undifferentiated , embryonic stem cells . the cytokine induction of inos expression involves multiple transcription factors , in particular the nuclear factor nf - κb . upon activation by cytokines ( e . g ., il - 1 and tnf - α , nf - κb translocates from the cytosolic compartment to the nucleus , where it binds to the inos gene promotor , and ultimately triggers inos gene transcription . this process is mediated by kinase - mediated protein phosphorylation and requires disassociation between nf - κb and its native inhibitor iκb . one of the statins , mevastatin , has been reported to inactivate nf - κb and reduce nf - κb - dependent expression of the endothelial adhesion proteins , vcam and e - selectin ( 40 ). consistently , the data from the current study clearly shows that simvastatin treatment can reduce nf - κb nuclear translocation and elevate the cytosolic content of phosphorylated iκbα . rho associated kinases ( rock ) have been reported to mediate the regulatory effect of statins on inos expression in airway epithelial cells ( 41 ). rock may control the inos gene promoter activities via nf - κb , however , the rock inhibitor y - 27632 shows different effects from those of statins in terms of inos gene activation . thus , it is likely that statins may regulate cytokine - induced inos expression through different signal pathways which involve both y - 27632 - sensitive and insensitive signalling as well as the nf - κ - b and iκbα interaction ( fig9 ). at the present time , there is still a dispute in this field as to whether no protects or damages the myocardium during inflammation or whether statin suppression of inos expression is beneficial or harmful to the heart ( 2 ). it has been recently established that simvastatin reduces reperfusion injury in the isolated - perfused working rat heart by preventing enos from inactivation and by suppressing ischemia - related inos induction , which correlates with a reduction in cardiomyocyte apoptosis ( 17 ). the current finding that simvastatin decreases cytokine - induced inos expression in cultured premature cardiac myoblasts illustrates a causal relationship between increased no and depressed cardiac contractility in heart failure . further clarification of the mechanism underlying the statin effect on no production and survival of cardiac stem cells may provide valuable information that will help in designing therapies for patients with myocardial infarction or ischemic heart failure . while the preferred embodiments of the invention have been shown and described , modifications thereof can be made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and teachings of the invention . the embodiments described herein are exemplary only , and are not intended to be limiting . many variations and modifications of the invention disclosed herein are possible and are within the scope of the invention . accordingly , the scope of protection is not limited by the description set out above , but is only limited by the claims , that scope including all equivalents of the subject matter of the claims . the disclosures of all patents , patent applications and publications cited herein are hereby incorporated herein by reference to the extent that they describe materials , methods or other details supplementary to those set forth herein . the following literature is cited by number in the foregoing text : 1 . geng , y . j . 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