On Male-Specific Estrogen Action

• Published in: Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2012, Vol.59 (4), p.418-419
• Main Author: Banka, Carole L., PhD
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Androgens; Cardiology; Cardiovascular; Estrogens; Men; Rodents
• ISSN: 0735-1097; 1558-3597
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2011.10.876

Differential recruitment of transcriptional cofactors may account for this divergent influence of the 2 receptors on PAI-1 induction. Because expression profiling did not reveal significant differences in estrogen receptor expression between cardiac tissues from males and females, Kararigas and coworkers suggest that the sex-specific regulation of Mylip gene expression results from sex-dependent differential recruitment of transcriptional cofactors by the estrogen-receptor complex. Whereas the authors of the current report suggest that Mylip may represent an effective therapeutic target for cardiovascular prevention in elderly men, the accumulating evidence of negative responses to estrogen in older men suggests that the use of aromatase inhibitors may be a more efficacious pharmacological approach. [...]the potentially important cardiovascular influences of endogenous estrogens in men and endogenous androgens in women have received little attention Clearly, the surprising finding of a gene regulated by estrogen only in male hearts opens the door to a provocative area of research, emphasizes the importance of endogenous estrogen pathophysiological action in men, and reveals novel therapeutic targets for cardiac dysfunction.