Table 4 Brain mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in ApoE-/- mice after BP- and/or cholesterol-lowering treatment.

From: Simvastatin therapy attenuates memory deficits that associate with brain monocyte infiltration in chronic hypercholesterolemia

Target

ApoE-/- young (4 months)

ApoE-/- aged (14 months)

ApoE-/- aged + hydralazine

ApoE-/- aged + simvastatin

ApoE-/- aged + hydralazine/simvastatin

Whole brain

IL12

0.98 ± 0.18

16.84 ± 2.29*

5.74 ± 2.04*&

1.39 ± 0.39&

6.15 ± 2.48*

MCP-1

0.93 ± 0.19

9.11 ± 2.64*

1.02 ± 0.13&

1.32 ± 0.27 &

2.75 ± 0.53*&

TNF-α

0.94 ± 0.09

7.33 ± 1.57*

2.16 ± 0.38*&

1.05 ± 0.28&

2.19 ± 0.14*&

IL6

1.14 ± 0.13

2.95 ± 0.15*

2.130 ± 0.37*

1.62 ± 0.15&

2.17 ± 0.23*

CXCL2

0.68 ± 0.17

29.32 ± 7.97*

11.60 ± 7.85*&

3.09 ± 2.15&

31.55 ± 6.70*

iNOS

1.00 ± 0.17

3.06 ± 0.79*

2.38 ± 0.58*&

1.89 ± 0.48&

2.59 ± 0.62*

Cortex

IL12

1.02 ± 0.05

5.07 ± 1.15*

1.57 ± 0.54&

0.97 ± 0.40&

0.99 ± 0.19&

IL23

0.19 ± 0.11

1.16 ± 0.30*

0.44 ± 0.16&

0.09 ± 0.02&

0.07 ± 0.03&

Arg-1

0.38 ± 0.23

0.11 ± 0.06

0.51 ± 0.26

0.43 ± 0.14

0.21 ± 0.14

Hippocampus

IL12

1.35 ± 0.35

12.36 ± 3.84*

6.74 ± 1.59

2.11 ± 0.43&

10.90 ± 2.29*

IL23

1.00 ± 0.54

10.21 ± 1.39*

4.48 ± 0.57

1.89 ± 0.55&

2.92 ± 0.95

Arg-1

6.41 ± 1.07

1.41 ± 0.35*

0.83 ± 0.26*

6.85 ± 2.89&

1.19 ± 0.41*

  1. mRNA expression of prominent inflammatory markers, including markers for classically and alternatively activated microglia were determined in whole brain tissue isolated from the different experimental groups using quantitative real-time PCR (6 top rows). In addition, selected markers were tested in cortex and hippocampus fractions. ApoE apolipoprotein E, Arg-1 arginase 1, BP blood pressure, CXCL chemokine (C–X–C motif) ligand, IL interleukin, iNOS inducible nitric oxide synthase, MCP-1 monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, TNF-α tumor necrosis factor alpha. Values are expressed as normalized to housekeeping gene expression and shown as mean ± SEM. N denotes number of independent biological replicates. N = 5 mice per group; * denotes P ≤ 0.05 relative to young control, & denotes P ≤ 0.05 relative to aged control after one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post hoc test.