Atorvastatin promotes adult epicardial progenitors differentiation into endothelial cells under the myocardial infarction condition through KLF2

Abstract

Myocardial infarction(MI) is related to inflammatory response, leading to the fibrosis that occurs in response to injured stimuli inducing cardiomyocyte death. Epicardial progenitor cells (EpiPCs) have been identified from adult epicardium as well as during development and may be differentiated for renewal of vessels at low basal level or neovascularization following cardiac injury. Here, we discovered that atorvastatin promotes KLF2 activation via ERK5, which induces the differentiation of adult epicardial cells into endothelial cells (ECs) and also promotes vessel formation, not fibroblast causing fibrosis, which suppressed fibroblast factor such as Snail.