Sex Specific Differences in Cardiac Fibrosis

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease is the leading causes of death in America, which prompted a concerted effort to better understand the causes and to develop innovative therapies. The etiology of heart disease is complex and depends on several factors such as age, race, and sex, but previous research conducted contains gaps, as it often did not look for a difference between these groups. This study aims to fill one aspect of this research gap by examining sex‐specific differences in cardiac fibrosis in failing and non‐failing human hearts. Cardiac fibrosis is a result of cardiac remodeling and causes decreased heart function post cardiac damage. A previous study, conducted in our lab, used Nanostring analysis to examine sex‐specific differences in the expression of genes related to fibrosis. The results of this study showed certain gene expressions were specific to sex or had an interaction between the sex and heart failure status. Several of these genes were regulators of collagen, a common type of cardiac fibrosis. We continued this study by quantifying collagen in human heart samples, collected from heart transplants and non‐viable organ donors. These samples were stained using an established picrosirius red staining technique, turning the collagen tissue red and normal cardiac tissue yellow. These samples were then quantified using a k‐means cluster, via a program written in the lab, to eliminate any bias in determining red and yellow tissue. The results are pending as there are still samples left to be completed. We hope to continue pursuing this line of inquiry into sex‐specific differences in heart disease by examining passive stiffness, of which collagen is a major component.Support or Funding InformationPenny Warren Award for Clinical and Translational ResearchAHA 15GRNT2546003(Campbell:PI)NIH UL1 TR000117 (Campbell: Core Leader)NSF 1538754 (Campbell: Co‐I)NIH R01 HD090642 (Campbell: PI of sub‐contract)NIH U01 HL133359 (Campbell: Co‐PI)This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.