Mevalonate is essential for growth of porcine and human vascular smooth muscle cells in vitro.

The effects of mevalonate depletion on growth and cell cycle kinetics of porcine and human vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC) were studied by growth curves and flow cytometric determination of cell cycle distribution. Porcine and human SMC were growth arrested by serum depletion for 48 h. Subsequently, they were stimulated to maximal growth and DNA synthesis by addition of serum. There was a concentration dependent decrease in the proliferation of human and porcine SMC, when cells were incubated in the presence of fluvastatin, a new, fully synthetic HMGCoA-reductase inhibitor. The reduction of cell number was significant with 10(-5) M and 10(-4)M fluvastatin. The highest concentration induced cell loss after prolonged incubation (> 4 days). The G/S-phase transition of human and porcine vascular SMC was reduced to 50% of controls by 10(-4) M fluvastatin as revealed by cell cycle analysis. The effects of fluvastatin on growth kinetics and cell cycle distribution could be completely reversed by the addition of 1 mM mevalonolactone. This indicates that the inhibitory effect of fluvastatin is caused by the inhibition of HMGCoA-reductase and depletion of mevalonate rather than being unspecific. Addition of LDL to supply cholesterol failed to support cell growth and transition of smooth muscle cells from G(zero)/G1-phase to S-phase, even though LDL was taken up by the cells as shown by confocal fluorescence microscopy. Neither did the addition of squalene or cholesterol to the culture medium normalize cell growth. It is concluded that nonsterol products that are synthesized from mevalonate are necessary for growth of smooth muscle cells. HMGCoA-reductase inhibitors like fluvastatin block the synthesis of these nonsterol precursors in human and porcine vascular SMC in vitro and are therefore growth inhibitory.