Figure 3.

Lovastatin mediated protection is independent from uptake and efflux of doxorubicin. (a) HUVEC were left untreated or were pretreated overnight with lovastatin (1 μM) before addition of doxorubicin (5 μg ml⁻¹). One hour after treatment, doxorubicin uptake was determined by FACS-based analysis of doxorubicin fluorescence. Shown is the result of one representative experiment out of three. (b) Lovastatin pretreated (1 μM, overnight)- or untreated HUVEC were exposed to doxorubicin as described in (a). Afterwards, doxorubicin was removed and doxorubicin fluorescence was determined 1 and 3 h later by FACS. Data shown are the mean and s.d. (vertical lines) from at least two independent experiments each performed in duplicate. (c) Analysis of mRNA expression of two main drug transporters, namely mdr-1 and mrp-1. GAPDH mRNA expression was analysed as an internal control.