Estrogen's role in preventing female cardi...( he female hearts was estrogen Kotliko...),Health

For years, estrogen replacement therapy has been prescribed to postmenopausal women for a variety of conditions, including stroke and heart disease, osteoporosis and hot flashes, although recent epidemiological studies have questioned the hormone's effectiveness in averting some problems, including stroke. Tamoxifen sometimes is prescribed to block estrogen production in women diagnosed with estrogen-related cancer, but that therapy also is somewhat controversial. Virtually all medical authorities agree that uncontrolled cardiac hypertrophy, without major intervention such as a transplant, results in death from heart failure.

Kotlikoff says that investigators need to learn how and why estrogen affects the abnormal growth of the heart muscle cells, called myocytes, as well as other kinds of body cells. He suggests that more detailed studies might find new evidence linking estrogen, blood pressure and hypertension. The body's system of cell-signaling triggers, receptors, channels, genes and regulatory mechanisms, he says, is "a very complex complex."Vanderbilt's Fleischer says: "With the knock-out mice, we have calcium signaling defined in a way that causes cardiac hypertrophy. We should be able to sort out the molecular signaling events that lead to this condition. It may also prove possible to slow down and even reverse the hypertrophy [in mice]. Chances are, it will be similar in humans."

'"/>

Contact: Roger Segelken
hrs2@cornell.edu
607-255-9736
Cornell University News Service
22-Mar-2002