Adventitial Fibrosis and Fibroblast Mechanosensitivity Are Shaped by Sex and Hormonal Status in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

ABSTRACT: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is marked by vascular remodeling, yet the role of adventitial fibrosis-and its modulation by sex and hormonal status-remains unclear. We examined stage-specific adventitial remodeling and pulmonary artery adventitial fibroblast (PAAF) mechanosensitivity in male, ovary-intact female, and ovariectomized (OVX) female Sprague-Dawley rats with SuHx-induced PAH. Hemodynamics, pulmonary artery histology, and adventitia-specific transcriptional profiling were integrated with in vitro assays of PAAFs exposed to defined substrate stiffness and stretch. All groups developed comparable increases in mean pulmonary arterial pressure, but vascular resistance shift and adventitial fibrosis diverged by sex: intact females showed attenuated increase in pulmonary vascula

SUBMITTER: Lin Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12939692 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature