In order to measure the effect of two doses of rosuvastatin (10 and 40 mg/day) on apolipoprotein (apo) B kinetics in men with the metabolic syndrome, Ooi et al. performed a randomized, double-blind, crossover trial featuring a 5 week treatment period with rosuvastatin or placebo in 12 men with the metabolic syndrome. One of the main findings of this study was a dose-dependent effect of rosuvastatin on the increased fractional catabolic rate of VLDL, IDL, and LDL-apo B particles. These changes in VLDL fractional catabolic rate were significantly associated with apo CIII levels. Moreover, LDL-apo B production decreased significantly with the highest dose of rosuvastatin, while there was no change in VLDL and IDL-apo B production rate. These findings provide further mechanistic information regarding the cardiovascular benefits of rosuvastatin by showing that it increases catabolism of apo B-containing lipoproteins in a dose-dependent manner.
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