The ROCK/GGTase Pathway Are Essential to the Proliferation and Differentiation of Neural Stem Cells Mediated by Simvastatin

Simvastatin, a lipophilic and fermentation-derived natural statin, is reported to treat neurological disorders, such as traumatic brain injury, Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer disease (AD), etc. Recently, research also indicated that simvastatin could promote regeneration in the dentate gyrus of adult mice by Wnt/beta-catenin signaling (Robin et al. in Stem Cell Reports 2:9-17, 2014). However, the effect and mechanisms by which simvastatin may affect the neural stem cells (NSCs; from the embryonic day 14.5 (E14.5) SD rat brain) are not fully understood. Here, we investigated the effects of different doses of simvastatin on the survival, proliferation, differentiation, migration, and cell cycle of NSCs as well as underlying intracellular signaling pathways. The results showed that simvastatin not only inhibits the proliferation of NSCs but also enhances the beta III-tubulin(+) neuron differentiation rate. Additionally, we find that simvastatin could also promote NSC migration and induce cell cycle arrest at M2 phrase. All these effects of simvastatin on NSCs were mimicked with an inhibitor of Rho kinase (ROCK) and a specific inhibitor of geranylgeranyl transferase (GGTase). In conclusion, these data indicate that simvastatin could promote neurogenesis of neural stem cells, and these effects were mediated through the ROCK/GGTase pathway.