A more mature phenotype of blood mononuclear phagocytes is induced by fluvastatin treatment in hypercholesterolemic patients with coronary heart disease

Monocytes are recruited as the principal inflammatory cells into the atherosclerotic lesion. In a previous study we demonstrated that a low HDL-cholesterol and the apo E4 allele are associated with an increased proportion of blood monocytes that are characterized by a high expression of Fcγ-RIIIa (CD16), a dim expression of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) receptor (CD14) and a high expression of β 1- and β 2-integrins (Rothe et al. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Cell Biol 1996;16:1437–1447). In this study, 79 hypercholesterolemic patients were treated either with the HMG CoA reductase inhibitor fluvastatin in combination with diet or with placebo and diet in a double-blind and randomized multicenter study, and monitored for the potential effects on the phenotype of peripheral blood monocytes. At baseline, in the whole group of hypercholesterolemic patients the population size of these more mature monocytes (CD14 dimCD16 +) was positively correlated to triglyceride ( P=0.003) and total serum cholesterol levels ( P=0.012) confirming our previous study. Fluvastatin treatment for 52 weeks was associated with a 24.2% reduction in LDL-cholesterol ( P