Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Jun 17;21(12):4314.
doi: 10.3390/ijms21124314.

The Role of Estrogen Receptors in Cardiovascular Disease

Laila Aryan  1 , David Younessi  1 , Michael Zargari  1 , Somanshu Banerjee  1 , Jacqueline Agopian  1 , Shadie Rahman  1 , Reza Borna  1 , Gregoire Ruffenach  1 , Soban Umar  1 , Mansoureh Eghbali  1
Affiliations
Review

The Role of Estrogen Receptors in Cardiovascular Disease

Laila Aryan et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally. More than 17 million people die worldwide from CVD per year. There is considerable evidence suggesting that estrogen modulates cardiovascular physiology and function in both health and disease, and that it could potentially serve as a cardioprotective agent. The effects of estrogen on cardiovascular function are mediated by nuclear and membrane estrogen receptors (ERs), including estrogen receptor alpha (ERα), estrogen receptor beta (ERβ), and G-protein-coupled ER (GPR30 or GPER). Receptor binding in turn confers pleiotropic effects through both genomic and non-genomic signaling to maintain cardiovascular homeostasis. Each ER has been implicated in multiple pre-clinical cardiovascular disease models. This review will discuss current reports on the underlying molecular mechanisms of the ERs in regulating vascular pathology, with a special emphasis on hypertension, pulmonary hypertension, and atherosclerosis, as well as in regulating cardiac pathology, with a particular emphasis on ischemia/reperfusion injury, heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

Keywords: GPR30; atherosclerosis; estrogen; estrogen receptor alpha; estrogen receptor beta; estrogen receptors; heart failure with preserved ejection fraction; heart failure with reduced ejection fraction; hypertension; ischemia-reperfusion injury.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The role of estrogen receptors in vascular disease: hypertension, pulmonary hypertension, and atherosclerosis. Depicted pathways have been shown to be involved in animal models of cardiovascular disease. CASMC: coronary artery smooth muscle cells; ERα: estrogen receptor alpha; ERβ: estrogen receptor beta; GPR30: G-protein-coupled estrogen receptor; Mig: migration; PASMC: pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells; Prolif: proliferation; RV: right ventricular; Vasc: vascular; VSMC: vascular smooth muscle cells; ↑: increased; ↓: decreased; ↕: conflicting results.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The role of estrogen receptors in heart disease: ischemia/reperfusion injury, heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Depicted pathways have been shown to be involved in animal models of cardiovascular disease. EF: ejection fraction; ERα: estrogen receptor alpha; ERβ: estrogen receptor beta; GPR30: G-protein-coupled estrogen receptor; HFpEF: heart failure with preserved ejection fraction; HFrEF: heart failure with reduced ejection fraction; I/R injury: ischemia/reperfusion injury; ROS: reactive oxygen species; ↑: increased; ↓: decreased.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Mosca L., Barrett-Connor E., Wenger N.K. Sex/gender differences in cardiovascular disease prevention: What a difference a decade makes. Circulation. 2011;124:2145–2154. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.968792. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yang X.-P., Reckelhoff J.F. Estrogen, hormonal replacement therapy and cardiovascular disease. Curr. Opin. Nephrol. Hypertens. 2011;20:133–138. doi: 10.1097/MNH.0b013e3283431921. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Murphy E. Estrogen signaling and cardiovascular disease. Circ. Res. 2011;109:687–696. doi: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.110.236687. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhao D., Guallar E., Ouyang P., Subramanya V., Vaidya D., Ndumele C.E., Lima J.A., Allison M.A., Shah S.J., Bertoni A.G., et al. Endogenous Sex Hormones and Incident Cardiovascular Disease in Post-Menopausal Women. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2018;71:2555–2566. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2018.01.083. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Marino M., Galluzzo P., Ascenzi P. Estrogen Signaling Multiple Pathways to Impact Gene Transcription. Curr. Genom. 2006;7:497–508. doi: 10.2174/138920206779315737. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources