ArticleLipids in health and disease2013
The effect of simvastatin on lipid droplets accumulation in human embryonic kidney cells and pancreatic cancer cells.
Article in Lipids in health and disease, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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21 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- KCNA2 variants cause dilated cardiomyopathy, obesity and sleep apnea through RAC-ERK pathway.EMBO molecular medicine · 2026Article
- Dexamethasone, celecoxib, and simvastatin-induced 5-fluorouracil resistance in cancer cells: a possible role of lipid droplet accumulation.Discover oncology · 2025Article
- Novel Lipophagy Inducers as Potential Therapeutics for Lipid Metabolism Disorders.ACS chemical biology · 2025Article
- Repurposing of Metabolic Drugs Metformin and Simvastatin as an Emerging Class of Cancer Therapeutics.Pharmaceutical research · 2025Review
- Highly variable biological effects of statins on cancer, non-cancer, and stem cells in vitro.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Effect of atorvastatin on lipoxygenase pathway-related gene expression in an in vitro model of lipid accumulation in hepatocytes.FEBS open bio · 2023Article
- Atorvastatin differentially regulates the interactions of cocaine and amphetamine with dopamine transporters.Neuropharmacology · 2023Article
- Review
- Metabolite Signature of Simvastatin Treatment Involves Multiple Metabolic Pathways.Metabolites · 2022Article
- Stimulated Raman scattering microscopy with spectral phasor analysis: applications in assessing drug-cell interactions.Chemical science · 2022Article
- Lipid composition of the cancer cell membrane.Journal of bioenergetics and biomembranes · 2020Review
- Mitochondrial protection by simvastatin against angiotensin II-mediated heart failure.British journal of pharmacology · 2019Article
- Membrane cholesterol as regulator of human rhomboid protease RHBDL4.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2018Article
- Article
- Lipid metabolism and carcinogenesis, cancer development.American journal of cancer research · 2018Review
- Variability in statin-induced changes in gene expression profiles of pancreatic cancer.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Statins and pancreatic cancer.Oncology letters · 2017Article
- Prospective analysis of association between statins and pancreatic cancer risk in the Women's Health Initiative.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2016Article
- MIR494 reduces renal cancer cell survival coinciding with increased lipid droplets and mitochondrial changes.BMC cancer · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundStatins (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) represent a major class of compounds for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia due to their ability to inhibit de novo cholesterol synthesis. In addition to their hypolipidemic effects, chemoprotective properties have been attributed to statins as well. These effects involve multiple mechanisms, which, however, are not known in detail. The aim of our study was to assess in non-malignant as well as cancer cells the impact of simvastatin on the amount of cytosolic lipid droplets (LDs) implicated in many biological processes including proliferation, inflammation, carcinogenesis, apoptosis, necrosis or growth arrest.
methodsHuman embryonic kidney cells HEK-293T and human pancreatic cancer cells MiaPaCa-2 were treated with simvastatin (6 and 12 μM) for 24 and 48 hours respectively. Neutral lipid probe Nile Red was used for detection of LDs by fluorescence microscopy. Cellular cholesterol content was determined by HPLC. Changes in expression of genes related to lipid metabolism in simvastatin-treated MiaPaCa-2 cells were examined by DNA microarray analysis. Validation of gene expression changes was performed using quantitative RT-PCR.
resultsThe treatment of the cells with simvastatin increased their intracellular content of LDs in both non-malignant as well as cancer cells, partially due to the uptake of cholesterol and triacylglyceroles from medium; but in particular, due to enhanced synthesis of triacylglyceroles as proved by significant overexpression of genes related to de novo synthesis of triacylglyceroles and phospholipids. In addition, simvastatin also markedly influenced expression of genes directly affecting cell proliferation and signaling.
conclusionsSimvastatin treatment led to accumulation of cytosolic LDs within the examined cells, a phenomenon which might contribute to the antiproliferative effects of statins.
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