The effect of some statins on Glucose blood levels in experimental animals

Abstract

Statins are HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, which are widely used as cholesterol-lowering drugs to treat hypercholesterolemia. They are essential in the primary and secondary prevention of CVDs. They are also well tolerated drugs, although there might be some adverse reactions, particularly the new onset of T2DM. As DM, impaired fasting glucose and pre-diabetes are significant cardiovascular risk factors, the purpose of the current work was to study the effects of some statins (pravastatin and pitavastatin) on glucose blood levels in non-diabetic and diabetic mice. Non-diabetic and diabetic female albino mice were treated with pravastatin and pitavastatin once a day for 28 days. Diabetes was induced using alloxan monohydrate (160mg/Kg body weight). Both body weight and fasting blood glucose were measured. IGTT was performed before and after drug treatment. There was no significant statistical difference in body weight between groups before and after 4 weeks of treatment. In addition, we didn’t find any marked change in fasting glucose concentrations of the treated groups in comparison to the control groups of each mouse model. No statistically significant difference was reported when we compared glucose values of IGTT before treatment and at the end of the study for each of the non-diabetic groups. Furthermore, no significant difference was recognized in IGTT results within the diabetic groups before and after drug administration, except for the pravastatin group, which showed a significant decrease in minute 30 of IGTT. We concluded that pravastatin may improve glucose intolerance in diabetic patients. Pitavastatin also may not affect the glycemic status in both models. Both drugs didn’t adversely affect fasting glucose levels in the two mouse models. These findings suggest that pravastatin and pitavastatin may be considered as good choices for patients with DM and hypercholesterolemia.