Estradiol protects female and male rat heart mitochondria from ischemic damage

Abstract

We investigated whether estradiol can prevent the ischemia-induced release of cytochrome c from mitochondria and inhibition of mitochondrial respiration in Langendorff-perfused female and male rat hearts. We found that pre-perfusion of hearts with 100 nM 17β-estradiol significantly reduced 60 min ischemia-induced loss of cytochrome c from mitochondria in both female and male hearts. Estradiol also reduced inhibition of mitochondrial state 3 respiration rate oxidizing pyruvate and malate caused by 60 min ischemia in hearts from both animal genders. Therefore, prevention of loss of cytochrome c from mitochondria by 17β-estradiol may be one of the possible mechanisms by which estrogens preserve myocardial cell viability during ischemia in both genders. Keywords: estrogens, heart, ischemia, mitochondria, respiration, cytochrome c