Objective: To study in vitro and in vivo effect of hypercholesterolemia (HC) on expression of platelet CD(62P) and CD(41) and their changes after treatment with pravastatin.
Methods: Twenty patients with HC were given 10 - 20 mg/d pravastatin orally for 4 - 8 weeks. Changes of blood cholesterol and expression of platelet CD(62P) and CD(41) were detected by flow cytometry.
Results: After 4 and 8 weeks' treatment, blood cholesterol level and platelet aggregation function decreased. The expression of CD(62P) average fluorescence intensity decreased from 31.8 +/- 7.8 to 27.2 +/- 6.9 and 26.8 +/- 4.9; CD(62P) (%) from (31.3 +/- 9.3)% to (26.4 +/- 7.4)% and (25.3 +/- 9.1)% (P < 0.05); CD(41) from 483.2 +/- 263.9 to 348.1 +/- 192.4 and 306.8 +/- 128.0 (P < 0.05), respectively. Similar results were obtained in vitro study.
Conclusion: Improvement of platelet function and expressions of CD(62P) and CD(41) in HC patients after prevastatin treatment may be resulted from enhancing arteriosclerosis regression. It suggested from the in vitro result that pravastatin might play a direct effect on platelet function.