Evaluating the effect of cinnamon and rosuvastatin, on the formation of foam cells in macrophages co-cultured with platelets

Atherosclerosis is a progressive inflammatory disease caused by the deposition of lipids in the arterial endothelial cells. Various medications, including rosuvastatin, are recommended to treat the atherosclerosis, in other hand, Cinnamon extract has been shown to treatment atherosclerosis by modulate macrophage activation. According to these properties, we evaluate the synergistic effect of cinnamon and rosuvastatin on the formation of foam cells in the macrophages-derived from U937 cells. To investigate the toxicity of rosuvastatin and cinnamon, MTT assay was employed. The formation of foam cells was evaluated by Oil red O staining. Flow cytometry was employed to determinate CD 163 marker. RQ-PCR was used to determine the expression level of the genes which involved in cholesterol metabolism in foam cells. Data were analyzed using t-student and ANOVA tests. Our finding indicated that, the foam cells formation significantly decreased in the presence of rosuvastatin and cinnamon extraction. Expression of the CD163 on foam cell surface was also increased during exposure to these two agents. The expression level of LXR and PPARγ genes in foam cells in accompany with platelet and ox-LDL was significantly increased (p < 0.01), but the expression of SRA was reduced. The expression of SRB1 and ACAT1 significantly increased (p < 0.05, p < 0.01) in PLT and ox-LDL groups. Both cinnamon and rosuvastatin could robustly induce M2 macrophages with anti-inflammatory properties and reduce foam cell formation, suggesting that the combination of two agents may treat the atherosclerosis.