Sexual dimorphism in rabbit aortic endothelial function under acute hyperglycemic conditions and gender-specific responses to acute 17beta-estradiol

摘要

Hyperglycemia brings about several changes in the vascular homeostasis. One of the hallmarks of hyperglycemia-induced vascular disease is endothelial cell dysfunction, characterized by impaired nitric oxide (NO)-dependent vasodilation. Endo-thelium-dependent vasodilation (EDV) is generally used as a reproducible parameter to probe endothelial function under different pathological conditions. Impaired EDV has been described in diabetes, and the degree of impairment of relaxation was shown to be correlated with glycemic control (48). We recently showed that acute exposure to high glucose (HG) reveals a gender difference in the development of impaired EDV in rat aorta (15), but because different species may react differently to a comparable stimulus (30), it remains to be established whether the above-mentioned sexual dimorphism is species specific or extends to other mammals. Hence, the first objective of the present study was to investigate whether rabbit aortic rings under acute hyperglycemic conditions also show a gender difference in the development of abnormal endothelium-dependent responses.