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:Epidemiological studies have shown sex differences in prevalence of non-allergic asthma. Recent reports demonstrated negative effects of androgen signaling on group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), explaining a potential mechanism behind sex bias in asthma prevalence. To further understand the difference in ILC2s based on sex, we have investigated the effects of sex and age on the number and function of lung ILC2s, and epithelium derived cytokines. Naive male and female mice of any ages tested did not differ in the number of ILC2s in the lung. Upon IL-33 injection, lung ILC2s in post puberty female mice responded more vigorously than male counterpart. Purified female lung ILC2s more rapidly produced cytokines than male mouse ILC2s. Gene expression profiles of naïve male and female ILC2s differed in 4% of the genes, and gene set enrichment analysis showed that female ILC2s are enriched for gene signatures of memory T cells. Epithelium-derived cytokines including IL-33 were more highly expressed in post puberty naïve female mouse lungs than male mouse lungs. However, the differences in responsiveness of male and female ILC2s were not affected in IL-33-deficient mice. Therefore, female ILC2s are more readily activated than male ILC2s, likely due to their similarity to memory T cells as suggested by the gene expression profiles.
Project description:We measured chromatin accessibility in neuronal nuclei from cortex derived from PD (18 male, 10 female) and healthy control (2 male, 2 female) brains. Each brain sample consisted of cortex from both right and left hemispheres. Th side of PD onset, age, duration of disease, as well as technical variables were used to define linear models related to DiffBind scores. Significant differences due to age, disease, sex, hemisphere, side of PD onset, or combinations were determined
Project description:We measured gene expression in neuronal nuclei from cortex derived from PD (18 male, 10 female) and healthy control (5 male, 6 female) brains. Each brain sample consisted of cortex from both right and left hemispheres. Th side of PD onset, age, duration of disease, as well as technical variables were used to define linear models of expression for each gene. Significant differences in expression due to age, disease, sex, hemisphere, side of PD onset, or combinations were determined