Monash University study finds sex hormone oestrogen protects women’s hearts

Scientists have discovered a surprising link between sex hormone oestrogen and heart disease in women.

Scientists have discovered how the sex hormone oestrogen helps protect women’s hearts.

The Monash University team found it influences levels of a natural protein that “shields” the hearts in those with high blood pressure from severe damage.

In a preclinical study the Victorian scientists found that oestrogen boosts the levels of a protein called annexin-A1, also known as nature’s inflammation healer.

They believe that this protein may hold the key to preventing or reversing the progression of cardiovascular diseases.

The team from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences says it may also help explain why women experience heart disease differently from men.

In the study published on Monday in the Nature journal Communications Biology, they said uncovering the link was an essential step towards developing new treatments explicitly for women.

Senior author Dr Helena Qin from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Image: Supplied.

Senior author Helena Qin said that in a preclinical animal study, they found that annexin-A1 played a critical role in controlling blood pressure, and the team hopes to replicate these findings in a clinical trial.

Dr Qin said the protein was involved in the body’s inflammatory response, but low or missing levels increased the risk of severe damage to the heart and its main artery from high blood pressure.

“It makes females more vulnerable to cardiovascular diseases, especially when we do not have enough of this protective protein,” she said

Scientists have been investigating levels of the protein to see if it can reduce the inflammation that can trigger heart disease, help control blood pressure, and potentially even stop heart problems from getting worse in women.

It also has the potential to be used as a diagnostic tool to warn of risk before disease occurs.

While this is good news, the downside is that levels of oestrogen typically decline as women enter peri-menopause in their 40s.

The scientists believe that low levels of the protein annexin-A1 may make females more vulnerable to cardiovascular diseases. Picture: iStock

The team found that middle-aged female mice lacking annexin-A1 experienced more inflammation and damage in their hearts and blood vessels.

Dr Qin said this indicated that untreated inflammation might contribute to heart and blood vessel problems as we age.

Lead author Dr Jaideep Singh said the discovery was exciting and he hoped it would lead to new treatments that boosted annexin-A1.

“These therapies might help prevent serious problems like heart failure by focusing on the unique ways women’s hearts and blood vessels work,” Dr Singh said.

“It also highlights the importance of doctors considering sex differences when deciding how to treat heart disease.”

Dr Qin said until now, there had been a major gap in understanding how high blood pressure and its treatments affect men and women differently.

“Clinical trials have historically overlooked sex-specific responses, leaving women under-represented and undeserved,” she said.

Asked why women stopped producing oestrogen if it played such an essential role in protecting their heart health, Dr Qin said it was part of ageing.

The research adds necessary evidence to why research for women should be done on women and not adapted from what works for men.

She said the study adds necessary evidence to why research for women should be done on women and not adapted from what works for men.

Dr Qin said there was an “urgent need” to uncover the distinct mechanisms driving hypertension and its cardiovascular complications in females, saying women were an underexplored population in clinical studies.

Originally published as Monash University study finds sex hormone oestrogen protects women’s hearts