Figure 4.

Effects of atorvastatin on osteoprotegerin (OPG) expression in FLSs and RANK expression in CD14⁺ cells of RA patients (patients 1, 4, and 5). (A) RT-PCR was used to analyze OPG mRNA expression in FLSs cultured for 24 hours with 20 ng/ml TNF-α and atorvastatin (10 to 100 μM). The results shown are representative of three independent experiments. (B) CD14⁺ cells were cultured for 48 or 72 hours in the presence of 2 ng/ml of macrophage colony-stimulating factor and different concentrations of atorvastatin (0.01 to 1 μM). RANK mRNA expression was not affected by atorvastatin according to RT-PCR results. (C) Atorvastatin had no effect on the viability of CD14⁺ cells at concentrations up to 1 μM. The results are representative of three independent experiments.