Start Date
16-2-2022
Mentor
Krishna Singh and Cerrone R. Foster
Description
Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide and according to the American Heart Association, the risk of HD in aging menopausal women doubles compared to men of the same age. Excessive contractility of blood vessels is a common feature in heart disease. Clinical and animal studies further support that estrogen loss worsen the contractility in the heart but the details remain unclear. Thus, the overall goal of this work was to examine how the timing and duration of estrogen loss affects heart failure. Our hypothesis is that long-term estrogen loss following heart failure worsens cardiac function of the aged female heart. To mimic menopause, we surgically removed the ovaries from female mice at 2.5 months of age, waited 5 or 12 months for estrogen loss, and induced heart failure using a drug that increases the contractility of the heart. Our results show that estrogen loss at 12 months caused a greater impairment on the heart’s response in increased contractility of the heart. Understanding the effects of estrogen loss and HD is crucial to improving and finding alternative treatments for heart disease in aging menopausal women.
Included in
Long Term Estrogen Loss Worsens Heart Function in Aged Female Mice
Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide and according to the American Heart Association, the risk of HD in aging menopausal women doubles compared to men of the same age. Excessive contractility of blood vessels is a common feature in heart disease. Clinical and animal studies further support that estrogen loss worsen the contractility in the heart but the details remain unclear. Thus, the overall goal of this work was to examine how the timing and duration of estrogen loss affects heart failure. Our hypothesis is that long-term estrogen loss following heart failure worsens cardiac function of the aged female heart. To mimic menopause, we surgically removed the ovaries from female mice at 2.5 months of age, waited 5 or 12 months for estrogen loss, and induced heart failure using a drug that increases the contractility of the heart. Our results show that estrogen loss at 12 months caused a greater impairment on the heart’s response in increased contractility of the heart. Understanding the effects of estrogen loss and HD is crucial to improving and finding alternative treatments for heart disease in aging menopausal women.