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Medical AI Inquiry: You was designed to assist in medical decision-making based on the provided user questions. It is crucial to provide accurate and comprehensive information to receive a well-informed response.  Labels: BACKGROUND, METHODS, RESULTS. Meshes: Animals, Atherosclerosis, Atorvastatin, Diet, High-Fat, Gene Expression Regulation, Heptanoic Acids, NF-kappa B, Plaque, Atherosclerotic, Pyrroles, RNA, Messenger, Rabbits, Signal Transduction, Toll-Like Receptor 4.
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Does atorvastatin suppress Toll-like receptor 4 expression and NF-κB activation in rabbit atherosclerotic plaques? Context: Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) plays an essential role in the pathogenesis and progression of atherosclerosis, which overexpresses in atherosclerotic lesions and mediates the production of inflammatory factors. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of atorvastatin on TLR4 protein and mRNA expression and its downstream factor NF-κB activation in rabbit atherosclerotic plaques. Rabbits continuously fed with high-fat diet for 24 weeks were randomly divided into two groups, the drug-treated group orally administrated with atorvastatin (2 mg/kg/day) three weeks after high-fat diet feeding and the model group with no treatment. The expression of TLR4 protein and mRNA, the level of activated NF-κB (p65) were respectively detected by western blotting, quantitative RT-PCR, and ELISA. The results showed that atorvastatin treatment reduced the expression of TLR4 protein and mRNA by 24.1% (p < 0.05) and 46.9% (p < 0.01), respectively, and also inhibited NF-κB activation by 76.0% (p < 0.001) in the atherosclerotic plaques.
assistant
Thus, it was suggested that atorvastatin could exert an anti-atherosclerotic activity besides inhibiting cholesterol biosynthesis. Final Decision: yes