抄録
In 1999, Mundy et al. has indicated that statins, drugs widely used for lowering serum cholesterol, stimulate bone formation in rodents and increase bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-2 expression in vitro. However, the other growth factors except for BMP-2 and the effects of simvastatin, one of statins, on periodontal tissues have not been shown yet. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of statins as a new effective agent for periodontal regeneration using luciferase reporter gene assay and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and the alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity in human periodontal ligament (HPDL) cells. The results showed that simvastatin induced not only BMP-2 but also transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) in HPDL cells and human osteoblastic cells (NHOst). To examine whether the TGF-â1 activity was related with productions of the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway, HPDL cells were treated with simvastatin in the presence or absence of mevalonic acid. The TGF-β1 induction was caused by the inhibition of cholesterol biosynthetic pathway. The differentiation study showed that TGF-β1 increased the ALP activity, but BMP-2 decreased the ALP activity in HPDL cells, even in the presence of TGF-β1. The effect of simvastatin is similar to that for BMP-2 with TGF-β1. The above in vitro findings suggest that simvastatin may be effective for periodontal regeneration as new therapeutic agents to induce the regenerative factors such as TGF-β1 and BMP-2.
