However, statin therapy alone tended to decrease pulmonary bacterial clearance in MV animals, leading in turn to worse lung injury, thus underlining the need for efficient antimicrobial therapy in combination with the drug. These findings emphasize also the fact that the beneficial effect of statins on VILI is uncertain and should be balanced with their deleterious impact on bacterial clearance . Moreover, the enhanced bactericidal activity of PMNs reported in mice with S. aureus pneumonia treated with simvastatin is unlikely in our model . Appropriate antibiotics could thus be the prerequisite for any beneficial adjunctive effect of statin therapy in patients with VAP.