Figure 4

Statin administration accelerates arthritis onset (fraction of arthritic animals versus time). Mice were immunized at day 0 and challenged at day 21, after which arthritis was scored three times a week until day 42. (A) Mice were given atorvastatin before challenge (day -28 until day 20, pre-A; cross sign, dark blue line) or after challenge (day 22 until day 42, post-A; open triangle, red line), or they were given pravastatin before challenge (pre-P; plus sign, green line) or after challenge (post-P; open circle, black line). Control mice (open diamond, light blue line) did not receive statins. The dark blue and black lines are overlapping. (B) Median time when 50% of the animals develop arthritis (ET₅₀ values; mean and 90% confidence intervals), calculated from (A). *Significantly different (P < 0.05) from control mice; ⁺significantly different (P < 0.05) from pre-A, pre-P, and post-P treated mice. n = 12 per group. ET₅₀ values (mean and 90% confidence intervals) were calculated using the PROAST program [20, 21]. One-way analysis of variance, followed by the Bonferroni post hoc test.