Role of Estrogen Receptor Alpha in Right Ventricular Remodeling

Does the loss of functional estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) remove female protection from adverse remodeling? We know that right ventricular function is preserved in women with pulmonary arterial hypertension compared to men. While ERα has been identified as a likely mediator of cardioprotection in the right ventricle, the exact role of ERα in preserving right ventricular function and remodeling in pressure overload is not well understood. In this episode Guest Editor Kristine DeLeon-Pennell (Medical University of South Carolina) interviews lead author Naomi Chesler (University of California Irvine) and expert Jessica Faulkner (Augusta University) about a new study by Cheng et al that utilized a sex-independent pulmonary arterial banding model in both female and male ERα mutant rats to investigate sex-dependent differences in right ventricular response to pressure overload. In females, ERα is protective against right ventricular pulmonary vascular uncoupling, diastolic dysfunction, and fibrosis in response to pressure overload. However, the authors did not observe the same effects in males. Given that only the ERα mutant females showed a dramatic fibrotic response, were the authors surprised by what their RNA sequencing analysis revealed? Listen and find out.

 

Tik-Chee Cheng, Jennifer L Philip, Diana Marcela Tabima, Santosh Kumari, Bakhtiyor Yakubov, Andrea L Frump, Timothy A. Hacker, Alessandro Bellofiore, Rongbo Li, Xin Sun, Kara N. Goss, Tim Lahm, Naomi Chesler Estrogen Receptor Alpha Prevents Right Ventricular Diastolic Dysfunction and Fibrosis in Female Rats  Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, published October 16, 2020. DOI: doi.org/10.1152/ ajpheart.00247.2020