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Sex-specific modulators of mitochondrial function

Subject Area Cardiology, Angiology
Term from 2008 to 2016
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 60843499
 
Final Report Year 2017

Final Report Abstract

Several studies indicated that sex, sex hormones, particularly 17ß-estradiol (E2) and the estrogen receptors (ER) influence the development of physiological and pathological myocardial hypertrophy (MH), fibrosis and heart failure. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are not understood in detail. Therefore, we analyzed the role of sex and E2/ER in the myocardial adaptation process in male and female WT, ERα- (ERKO) and ERβ-knockout (BERKO) mice in response to voluntary cage wheel running (VCR). We showed that VCR-induced physiological MH is more pronounced in female WT compared with male WT mice. This was associated with the greater activation of AKT, p38- and ERK1/2-MAPK, protein synthesis and mitochondrial adaptation in females. Using BERKO mice, we could show that ERβ modulates the development of physiological MH in both sexes. Since ERKO mice did not run in a similar manner as WT and BERKO mice, they were not considered as an appropriate model to analyze the effects of ERα on physiological MH. Mechanistic studies in AC16 cells support the role of E2/ER on modulation of mitochondrial regulatory genes. In particular, E2 via ERβ enhances the expression of MEF2A, NRF1, NRF2A/B, and Tfam. Further, we showed that E2 induces the nuclear translocation of MEF2a in cardiomyocytes. To exclude systemic effects of ER, we generated novel mouse models with a cardiomyocyte-specific deletion of ERα (CM-ERαKO) or ERβ (CM-ERβKO). Using CM-ERβKO, we confirmed that ERβ specifically in cardiomyocytes is pivotal for induction of physiological MH in both sexes. CM-ERαKO mice are still under investigation, due to delivery difficulties of flox-ERα mice. Additionally, we generated mice with a cardiomyocyte specific 16 ERα- or ERβ-overexpression, and subjected them to myocardial infarction. Thereby, we could show that development of pathological MH and cardiac remodeling is affected by ERα and ERβ in a sex- dependent manner and identified the underlyingmechanisms.

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