Simvastatin decreases peroxynitrite, superoxide and iNOS production.

<p><b>A</b>. Representative images of nitrotyrosine staining. In vehicle treated animals, patches of densely stained nitrotyrosine appear in the brain parenchyma (arrow heads). In comparison, both simvastatin treated groups show a substantial reduction in nitrotyrosine deposits. There is no nitrotyrosine deposit in the naïve group. Scale bar is 150 µm. <b>B</b> and <b>C</b>. Spectrophotometric measurement of O₂⁻ shows markedly reduced production of O₂⁻ from pre-SAH (<i>P</i><0.001) and post-SAH simvastatin treated groups (<i>P</i><0.01) as compared to vehicle treatment. However, only pre-SAH but not post-SAH simvastatin treatment reduce production of O₂⁻ to the naïve level (<i>P></i>0.05 for pre-SAH and <i>P</i><0.001 for post-SAH compared to naïve controls). <b>D</b> and <b>E.</b> Western blot quantification of iNOS protein expression show that iNOS protein was significantly decreased by pre- (<b>D</b>, <i>P</i><0.01) but not post-SAH (<b>E</b>, <i>P></i>0.05) simvastatin treatment as compared to vehicle treated animals. A representative blot is shown for each treatment group under corresponding bar graphs. All data are mean ± SD. Legend in <b>E</b> is for all the charts in the figure.