Figure 1. Treatment with 10 µM simvastatin for 48 h reduces cellular and caveolar cholesterol in the adult ventricular myocyte.

A. Cellular free cholesterol indexed in fixed myocytes labelled with filipin. Bar graph shows mean fluorescence (arbitrary units, AU) from n = 48-58 myocytes (from 4 hearts). Representative control and statin-treated myocytes are shown below. B. Total cholesterol (normalised to total protein concentration) measured in cell lysates using the Amplex Red assay (n = 7 hearts). C. Cholesterol distribution measured in cell lysates following sucrose density gradient fractionation using the Amplex Red assay. Samples were adjusted to equal protein concentrations before fractionation (n = 3 hearts). All data are mean ± S.E.M. * P<0.05, ** P<0.01 vs. control, Student's t-test.