In tests done on female mice and mice heart cells, Dr Ellis Levin and his UCI colleagues found that estrogen triggers molecular activity that blocks cardiac hypertrophy, or heart enlargement.
This thickening of tissue in the heart ventricles is seen in almost 80% of people following heart attacks. Cardiac hypertrophy also commonly results from long-standing hypertension and leads to a poorly functioning heart and heart failure in many instances. Previous studies have indicated that premenopausal women have lower rates of heart disease than men, a rate that significantly rises in women after menopause.
The results will continue a debate raised by the Women’s Health Initiative over whether estrogen plays any beneficial role with cardiac disease in women.
The initiative is a recently completed 15-year research program funded by the National Institutes of Health to address the most common causes of death, disability and poor quality of life in postmenopausal women, and some of its study data indicated that estrogen offered no protection against the development of arteriosclerotic heart disease.
“Our work suggests that further in-depth studies should be undertaken to determine if estrogen supplements prevent cardiac hypertrophy, especially in postmenopausal women with risk factors for this disorder,” said Dr Levin, director of endocrinology at UCI and the affiliated Veterans Affairs Medical Center. “Existing research results in women support this concept.”
Estrogen is needed for normal growth and development of female sex organs and for functions such as bearing children. But during menopause, the body’s production of estrogen decreases. Estrogen replacement is used for symptoms associated with menopause and for the prevention of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Estrogen supplements, though, have been linked to higher rates of breast cancer.