Pravastatin as the statin of choice for reducing pre-eclampsia-associated endothelial dysfunction

•Pravastatin and simvastatin decrease TNF-α induced ET-1 and sFLT-1 secretion.•Pravastatin effectively mitigates endothelial dysfunction in pre-eclampsia models.•Simvastatin and rosuvastatin have cytotoxic effects in endothelial in vitro models. There is avid interest in pravastatin as a therapeutic intervention for pre-eclampsia, however little is known on statin action on endothelial dysfunction. This study aimed to evaluate the ability of pravastatin, simvastatin and rosuvastatin to reduce pre-eclampsia-associated markers of endothelial dysfunction in human endothelial cells. Primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and uterine microvascular cells (UtMVs) were isolated and treated with 0.2, 2, 20 and 200 µM pravastatin, simvastatin and rosuvastatin for 24 h, either with or without pre-treatment with TNF-α to induce endothelial dysfunction. Cell viability (MTS) assays were performed and cells were visually inspected. Expression of endothelial dysfunction markers, endothelin-1 (ET-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) were assessed by qPCR (n=3). Intracellular VCAM-1 protein was examined by Western Blotting (n=5). ET-1 and soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFLT-1) protein secretion was assessed by ELISA in HUVEC conditioned media (n=3). High doses of simvastatin and rosuvastatin significantly compromised HUVEC survival. 200 µM simvastatin significantly reduced UtMV survival. Abnormal cell structure was observed with these doses and thus were excluded from further analysis. The statins did not mitigate TNF-α induced ET-1 or VCAM-1 expression in either HUVECs or UtMVs, nor VCAM-1 protein expression in HUVECs. 0.2 µM pravastatin and simvastatin significantly reduced ET-1 and sFLT-1 protein secretion. Pravastatin significantly reduced secretion of both ET-1 and sFLT-1, key mediators of endothelial dysfunction. Importantly, pravastatin had no toxic effects, in contrast to rosuvastatin and simvastatin. This further supports selection of pravastatin for clinical applications to combat pre-eclampsia.