Highly variable biological effects of statins on cancer, non-cancer, and stem cells in vitro
Open accessAbstract
Statins, the drugs used for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia, have come into the spotlight not only as chemoadjuvants, but also as potential stem cell modulators in the context of regenerative therapy. In our study, we compared the in vitro effects of all clinically used statins on the viability of human pancreatic cancer (MiaPaCa-2) cells, non-cancerous human embryonic kidney (HEK 293) cells and adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSC). Additionally, the effect of statins on viability of MiaPaCa-2 and ADMSC cells spheroids was tested. Furthermore, we performed a microarray analysis on ADMSCs treated with individual statins (12 μM) and compared the importance of the effects of statins on gene expression between stem cells and pancreatic cancer cells. Concentrations of statins that significantly affected cancer cells viability (< 40 μM) did not affect stem cells viability after 24 h. Moreover, statins that didn´t affect viability of cancer cells grown in a monolayer, induce the disintegration of cancer cell spheroids. The effect of statins on gene expression was significantly less pronounced in stem cells compared to pancreatic cancer cells. In conclusion, the low efficacy of statins on non-tumor and stem cells at concentrations sufficient for cancer cells growth inhibition, support their applicability in chemoadjuvant tumor therapy.
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Statins disorganize tridimensional spheroid structures.
“Statins, however, have disorganized the tridimensional spheroid structures”
From The antitumoral effect of statins in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: a scoping review (2026) · cites this paper as Gbelcová et al., 2024
The Results section (Fig. 3) reports that several statins caused pre-formed ADMSC spheroids to decay and that pravastatin and rosuvastatin reduced the compactness of pancreatic cancer spheroids. But the effects varied by statin and cell type: some treatments produced no visible change, so the unqualified statement is too broad. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn vitro, statins have antiproliferative effects on PDAC cells in MIA PaCa-2 and ADMSC spheroids.
“An in vitro study on the MIA PaCa-2 line and adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSC) spheroids demonstrated the antiproliferative effects of statins on PDAC cells.”
From The antitumoral effect of statins in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: a scoping review (2026) · cites this paper as Gbelcová et al., 2024
Statins can impair the tridimensional organization of PDAC cells.
“Apart from direct growth inhibition, statins can impair the tridimensional organization of PDAC cells.”
From The antitumoral effect of statins in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: a scoping review (2026) · cites this paper as Gbelcová et al., 2024
The statin concentration that affects PDAC cell viability does not have the same effect on ADMSC spheroids.
“the statin concentration that affects PDAC cell viability does not have the same effect on ADMSC spheroids”
From The antitumoral effect of statins in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: a scoping review (2026) · cites this paper as Gbelcová et al., 2024
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- Authors
- Gbelcová, H., Rimpelová, S., Jariabková, A., Macášek, P., Priščáková, P., Ruml, T., Šáchová, J., Kubovčiak, J., Kolář, M., & Vítek, L.
- Affiliations
- Comenius University Bratislava (SK)
- University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague (CZ)
- Czech Academy of Sciences (CZ)
- Corresponding author
- Gbelcová, Helena
- ORCID
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2024-05-23
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 11830-11830
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC11116523
- OpenAlex
- W4398251724
- Cited by
- 4
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 0.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Slovak Research and Development Agency (APVV-15-0217)
- Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic (VEGA-1/0405/22)
- Operational Programme Research, Development, and Education (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000785)
- Czech Ministry of Health (MH CZ-DRO-VFN64165)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer, Lipids, and Metabolism
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Metabolism, Diabetes, and Cancer
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer Cells and Metastasis
- Keywords
- statins, pancreatic cancer, adipose-derived stem cells, cell viability, spheroids, gene expression, regenerative therapy, HEK293 cells, drug selectivity
- MeSH terms
- Cell Survival, Humans, Pancreatic Neoplasms, Spheroids, Cellular, Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors, Cell Line, Tumor, HEK293 Cells, Mesenchymal Stem Cells
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