Project description:Background The contribution of glucocorticoids to sexual dimorphism in the heart is essentially unknown. Therefore, we sought to determine the sexually dimorphic actions of glucocorticoid signaling in cardiac function and gene expression. To accomplish this goal, we conducted studies on mice lacking glucocorticoid receptors (GR) in cardiomyocytes (cardioGRKO mouse model). Methods and Results Deletion of cardiomyocyte GR leads to an increase in mortality because of the development of spontaneous cardiac pathology in both male and female mice; however, females are more resistant to GR signaling inactivation in the heart. Male cardioGRKO mice had a median survival age of 6 months. In contrast, females had a median survival age of 10 months. Transthoracic echocardiography data showed phenotypic differences between male and female cardioGRKO hearts. By 3 months of age, male cardioGRKO mice exhibited left ventricular systolic dysfunction. Conversely, no significant functional deficits were observed in female cardioGRKO mice at the same time point. Functional sensitivity of male hearts to the loss of cardiomyocyte GR was reversed following gonadectomy. RNA‐Seq analysis showed that deleting GR in the male hearts leads to a more profound dysregulation in the expression of genes implicated in heart rate regulation (calcium handling). In agreement with these gene expression data, cardiomyocytes isolated from male cardioGRKO hearts displayed altered intracellular calcium responses. In contrast, female GR‐deficient cardiomyocytes presented a response comparable with controls. Conclusions These data suggest that GR regulates calcium responses in a sex‐biased manner, leading to sexually distinct responses to stress in male and female mice hearts, which may contribute to sex differences in heart disease, including the development of ventricular arrhythmias that contribute to heart failure and sudden death.
Project description:Epigenomewide methylation profiling of tumor DNA from pediatric germ cell tumors by sex, tumor histology, tumor location and age at diagnosis. DNA methylation was measured using the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 array
Project description:Many stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders display pronounced sex differences in their frequency and clinical symptoms. Glucocorticoids are primary stress hormones that have been implicated in the development of these disorders but whether they contribute to the observed sex bias is poorly understood. Glucocorticoids signal through two closely related nuclear receptors, the glucocorticoid (GR) and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), that are both expressed at high levels in the hippocampus. To investigate the sex-dependent and independent actions of glucocorticoids in the hippocampus, we developed knockout mice lacking hippocampal GR (GREmx1-cre), MR (MREmx1-cre), or both GR and MR (GRMREmx1-cre). Genome-wide microarrays were performed on RNA isolated from the hippocampus of male and female flox control and knockout mice in order to 1) identify genes dysregulated in a sex-dependent and independent manner by a deficiency in GR, MR, or both GR and MR signaling and 2) identify the genes responsible for the sex-dependent and independent phenotypes observed in these mice.