Genes and hormones: sex differences in myocardial hypertrophy

Abstract

Female hearts develop a more favorable physiological form of myocardial remodeling when subjected to pressure or volume overload than male hearts involving the synergistic activity of several cellular-based protective pathways induced by estrogen signaling via estrogen receptors (ERs), influencing mitochondrial function, and myocardial energy metabolism. In contrast, testosterone induces matrix remodeling and growth factor signaling via androgen receptors (AR) and contributes to eccentric remodeling. This review focuses on sex differences in ventricular morphology and function and in myocardial-signaling pathways in myocardial hypertrophy (MH) to understand protective mechanisms or alternatively suppressed or avoided maladaptive-signaling pathways in the female sex. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.