eprintid: 10061497 rev_number: 29 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/06/14/97 datestamp: 2018-11-15 13:33:41 lastmod: 2021-09-20 00:25:33 status_changed: 2019-02-20 16:30:35 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Pose, E creators_name: Trebicka, J creators_name: Mookerjee, RP creators_name: Angeli, P creators_name: Ginès, P title: Statins: Old drugs as new therapy for liver diseases ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B02 divisions: C10 divisions: D17 divisions: G91 keywords: Chronic liver diseases, Decompensation, Pleiotropic effects, Portal hypertension, Statins note: This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract: In addition to lowering cholesterol levels, statins have pleiotropic effects, particularly anti-inflammatory, antiangiogenic, and antifibrotic, that may be beneficial in some chronic inflammatory conditions. Statins have only recently been investigated as a potential treatment option in chronic liver diseases because of concerns related to their safety in patients with impaired liver function. A number of experimental studies in animal models of liver diseases have shown that statins decrease hepatic inflammation, fibrogenesis and portal pressure. In addition, retrospective cohort studies in large populations of patients with cirrhosis and pre-cirrhotic conditions have shown that treatment with statins, with the purpose of decreasing high cholesterol levels, was associated with a reduced risk of disease progression, hepatic decompensation, hepatocellular carcinoma development, and death. These beneficial effects persisted after adjustment for disease severity and other potential confounders. Finally, a few randomised controlled trials have shown that treatment with simvastatin decreases portal pressure (two studies) and mortality (one study). Statin treatment was generally well tolerated but a few patients developed severe side effects, particularly rhabdomyolysis. Despite these promising beneficial effects, further randomised controlled trials in large series of patients with hard clinical endpoints should be performed before statins can be recommended for use in clinical practice. date: 2019-01 date_type: published official_url: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2018.07.019 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1575947 doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2018.07.019 pii: S0168-8278(18)32275-X lyricists_name: Mookerjee, Rajeshwar lyricists_id: RPMOO69 actors_name: Cuccu, Clara actors_id: CCCUC40 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Journal of Hepatology volume: 70 number: 1 pagerange: 194-202 event_location: Netherlands issn: 1600-0641 citation: Pose, E; Trebicka, J; Mookerjee, RP; Angeli, P; Ginès, P; (2019) Statins: Old drugs as new therapy for liver diseases. Journal of Hepatology , 70 (1) pp. 194-202. 10.1016/j.jhep.2018.07.019 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2018.07.019>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10061497/8/Mookerjee%20VoR1-s2.0-S016882781832275X-main.pdf