Mycophenolate mofetil and atherosclerosis: results of animal and human studies.
The immunosuppressive agent mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) has beneficial effects in cardiac transplant patients beyond the suppression of tissue rejection. Patients with regimens containing MMF experience diminished intimal thickening and cardiac allograft vasculopathy compared to patients treated with azathioprine. Studies have shown that diet-induced atherosclerosis (a related vasculopathy) is a chronic inflammatory process, and so MMF has also been used to reduce atherosclerosis in a rabbit model of hyperlipidemia. These data hold out the intriguing possibility that MMF might be a viable primary or secondary preventive agent in people at significant risk for atherosclerosis.
Gibson
William Thomas
WT
Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, Child and Family Research Institute, University of British Columbia, 950 West 28th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5Z 4H4.
Hayden
Michael Reuben
MR
D000818:Animals; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D009173:Mycophenolic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use
D009173:Mycophenolic Acid