Simvastatin Effects on Skeletal Muscle

Glucose tolerance and skeletal muscle coenzyme Q10 (Q10) content, mitochondrial density, and mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) capacity were measured in simvastatin-treated patients (n = 10) and in well-matched control subjects (n = 9). A prevalent side effect of statin therapy is muscle pain, and yet the basic mechanism behind it remains unknown. We hypothesize that a statin-induced reduction in muscle Q10 may attenuate...