Simvastatin does not prevent acute cardiac allograft rejection in CD28-deficient mice.

Background: Heterotopic cardiac transplantation in mice was used to determine whether complementary immunomodulation by statins prevents lymphocyte function-associated antigen (LFA)-1-dependent acute allograft rejection in vivo.

Method: Hearts from BalbC mice were transplanted to the cervical vessels of either C57BL/6, CD11a(-/-), CD28(-/-) or double-deficient animals lacking expression of both LFA-1 and CD28.

Results: Allografts were rejected at days 7.