Efficacy of Combined Atorvastatin and Sildenafil in Promoting Recovery After Ischemic Stroke in Mice

Wang QM, Wei Y, Zheng Y, Waeber C: Efficacy of combined atorvastatin and sildenafil in promoting recovery after ischemic stroke in mice. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2013;92:143-150. Objective: The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that a combination of atorvastatin and sildenafil promotes recovery in an additive manner after ischemic stroke in mice. Design: Adult C57BL/6 mice (n = 67) were subjected to transient middle cerebral artery occlusion. Vehicle-control (H2O), atorvastatin (0.3 mg/kg), sildenafil (0.3 mg/kg), or combined atorvastatin (0.3 mg/kg) and sildenafil (0.3 mg/kg) were administrated via oral gavage daily for 6 days starting 24 hrs after ischemia. Behavioral studies including neurologic score and adhesive removal test were performed before surgery and on postoperative days 1 and 7; cylinder test was performed before surgery and on postoperative day 7. Mice were killed after 7 days and brain slices were stained with hematoxylin and eosin to measure the infarct volume. Results: The combination group performed significantly better in the adhesive removal test (mean +/- SD) (50 +/- 54 secs) as compared with the control group (147 +/- 109 secs) (P < 0.05) and to atorvastatin (144 +/- 102 secs) (P < 0.05) but did not show statistically significant improvement as compared with sildenafil (107 +/- 115 secs) (P = 0.148). There were no significant differences among the groups in neurologic score and cylinder test. There was no significant difference in the infarct volume. Conclusions: The data suggest that combined atorvastatin and sildenafil generates a better functional outcome as compared with atorvastatin-only treatment, but not sildenafil-only treatment, in one of multiple variables tested.