Lack of robust neurologic benefits with simvastatin or atorvastatin treatment after acute thoracic spinal cord contusion injury

This paper describes a series of experiments that were performed to evaluate the comparative neuroprotective effects of simvastatin and atorvastatin. We observed a promising signal of neurologic benefit with simvastatin in our first experiment, but in repeated attempts to replicate that effect in three subsequent experiments, we failed to reveal any behavioral or histologic improvements. We would conclude that simvastatin given orally or subcutaneously at doses previously reported by other investigators to be effective in different neurologic conditions does not confer a significant neurologic benefit in a thoracic contusion injury model (OSU Impactor) when administered with a 1-h delay in intervention. We contend that further preclinical investigation of atorvastatin and simvastatin is warranted before considering their translation into human SCI.