Cited by 114Mitochondrial Function and PathologyMuscle Physiology and DisordersCoenzyme Q10 studies and effects

Simvastatin impairs ADP-stimulated respiration and increases mitochondrial oxidative stress in primary human skeletal myotubes

Open access
Kwak, Hyo-Bum, Thalacker-Mercer, Anna, Anderson, Ethan J., Lin, Chien-Te, Kane, Daniel A., Lee, Nam-Sihk, Cortright, Ronald N., Bamman, Marcas M. +1 more·2012·Free Radical Biology and Medicine

Abstract

Statins, the widely prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, cause adverse skeletal muscle side effects ranging from fatigue to fatal rhabdomyolysis. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of simvastatin on mitochondrial respiration, oxidative stress, and cell death in differentiated primary human skeletal muscle cells (i.e., myotubes). Simvastatin induced a dose-dependent decrease in viability of proliferating and differentiating primary human muscle precursor cells, and a similar dose-dependent effect was noted in differentiated myoblasts and myotubes. Additionally, there were decreases in myotube number and size following 48 h of simvastatin treatment (5 μM). In permeabilized myotubes, maximal ADP-stimulated oxygen consumption, supported by palmitoylcarnitine+malate (PCM, complex I and II substrates) and glutamate+malate (GM, complex I substrates), was 32-37% lower (P<0.05) in simvastatin-treated (5 μM) vs control myotubes, providing evidence of impaired respiration at complex I. Mitochondrial superoxide and hydrogen peroxide generation were significantly greater in the simvastatin-treated human skeletal myotube cultures compared to control. In addition, simvastatin markedly increased protein levels of Bax (proapoptotic, +53%) and Bcl-2 (antiapoptotic, +100%, P<0.05), mitochondrial PTP opening (+44%, P<0.05), and TUNEL-positive nuclei in human skeletal myotubes, demonstrating up-regulation of mitochondrial-mediated myonuclear apoptotic mechanisms. These data demonstrate that simvastatin induces myotube atrophy and cell loss associated with impaired ADP-stimulated maximal mitochondrial respiratory capacity, mitochondrial oxidative stress, and apoptosis in primary human skeletal myotubes, suggesting that mitochondrial dysfunction may underlie human statin-induced myopathy.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2011.10.449

Cites

52 of 52 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Kwak et al. reported impaired ADP-stimulated respiration in primary human skeletal myotubes after 48 h of simvastatin treatment, accompanied by increased mitochondrial oxidative stress.

    “Recently Kwak et al. (40) reported impaired ADP-stimulated respiration in primary human skeletal myotubes after 48 h of simvastatin treatment, and this was accompanied by increased mitochondrial oxidative stress (hydrogen peroxide emission).”

    From Simvastatin Effects on Skeletal Muscle (2013) · cites this paper as [40]

  • Reduced antioxidant capacity combined with known elevated ROS production makes it plausible that increased apoptosis contributes to muscle pain in statin-treated patients.

    “Our findings of significantly reduced antioxidant capacity in combination with the known (3,40) elevated ROS production in the simvastatin-treated patients make it plausible that increased apoptosis could contribute to muscle pain in patients treated with statins.”

    From Simvastatin Effects on Skeletal Muscle (2013) · cites this paper as [40]

  • Increased Ca2+ load in the mitochondrial matrix is linked to increased ROS production and permeability transition pore opening, leading to apoptosis.

    “In turn, an increased Ca 2ϩ load in the mitochondrial matrix has been linked to increased ROS production and increased permeability transition pore opening, leading to apoptosis (40,45).”

    From Simvastatin Effects on Skeletal Muscle (2013) · cites this paper as [40]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Kwak, H.-B., Thalacker-Mercer, A., Anderson, E. J., Lin, C.-T., Kane, D. A., Lee, N.-S., Cortright, R. N., Bamman, M. M., & Neufer, P. D.
Affiliations
  • East Carolina University (US)
  • University of Alabama at Birmingham (US)
Corresponding author
Neufer, P. Darrell
Venue
Free Radical Biology and Medicine
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2012-01
Volume
52
Issue
1
Pages
198-207
ISSN
0891-5849 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W1985595789
Cited by
114
References
52
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 7
FWCI
4.03
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Free Radical Biology and Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute on Aging (R01AG017896)
  • National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK073488, R01DK075880, R01DK074825)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Mitochondrial Function and Pathology
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Muscle Physiology and Disorders
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Coenzyme Q10 studies and effects
Keywords
simvastatin, statin-induced myopathy, skeletal muscle, myotubes, mitochondrial respiration, complex I, mitochondrial oxidative stress, superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, apoptosis, Bax, Bcl-2, mitochondrial permeability transition, myotube atrophy, rhabdomyolysis
MeSH terms
Adenosine Diphosphate, Anticholesteremic Agents, Cell Differentiation, Dose-Response Relationship, Drug, Humans, Hydrogen Peroxide, Mitochondria, Muscular Diseases, Oxygen Consumption, Superoxides, Signal Transduction, Gene Expression, Apoptosis, Oxidative Stress, Muscle Fibers, Skeletal, Cell Respiration, Respiratory System Agents, Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2, Simvastatin, Myoblasts, Electron Transport Complex I, Primary Cell Culture

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review