Statins affect the presentation of endothelial chemokines by targeting to multivesicular bodies

In addition to lowering cholesterol, statins are thought to beneficially modulate inflammation. Several chemokines including CXCL1/growth-related oncogene (GRO)-α, CXCL8/interleukin (IL)-8 and CCL2/monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 are important in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and can be influenced by statin-treatment. Recently, we observed that atorvastatin-treatment alters the intracellular content and subcellular distribution of GRO-α in cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). The

Atorvastatin targets inflammatory chemokines to the endocytic pathway and multivesicular bodies and may contribute to explain the anti-inflammatory effect of statins at the level of endothelial cell function.