Women In Menstrual Phase Research Articles

Handedness and gender influence blood pressure in young healthy men and women: A pilot study.

The type and level of sex steroids influence blood pressure (BP). It has been suggested that functional brain asymmetries may be influenced by sex hormones. In addition, there are inter-arm differences in BP not yet related with handedness. In this study, we hypothesize a possible association between sex hormones, handedness, and inter-arm differences in blood pressure. To analyze this hypothesis, we measured BP in the left and right arm of the left and right handed adult young men and women in menstrual and ovulatory phase and calculated their mean arterial pressure (MAP). Significant differences depending on sex, arm, handedness or phase of the cycle were observed. MAP was mostly higher in men than in women. Remarkably, in women, the highest levels were observed in the left handed in menstrual phase. Interestingly, the level of handedness correlated negatively with MAP measured in the left arm of right-handed women in the ovulatory phase but positively with the MAP measured in the right arm of right-handed women in the menstrual phase. These results may reflect an asymmetrical modulatory influence of sex hormones in BP control.

Estrogen and progesterone play pivotal roles in endothelial progenitor cell proliferation

BackgroundIt has been previously suggested that angiogenesis occurs during the menstrual cycle. Moreover, a rise in uterine blood flow is largely maintained by vasodilatation and substantial increases in angiogenesis. It is known that estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P4) are involved in angiogenesis. Recently, endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) were found to be involved in neovascularization; however, their roles in uterine neovascularization have not been well characterized. We hypothesized that E2- or P4-mediated EPC proliferation plays important roles in uterine neovascularization during the menstrual cycle.MethodsThe number of EPCs in peripheral blood from subjects in the menstrual phase (n = 12), follicular phase (n = 8), and luteal phase (n = 16), was measured using flow cytometry. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were cultured for seven days with or without 17beta-estradiol (E2beta) or P4, followed by assessment of EPC proliferation based upon the uptake of acetylated low density lipoprotein (LDL) and lectin. The expression of estrogen receptor (ER) or progesterone receptor (PR) in EPCs was also evaluated using real-time PCR.ResultsE2beta and P4 significantly increased the proliferation of EPCs derived from the peripheral blood of subjects in menstrual phase, but not subjects in the luteal phase. In addition, the expression level of ERalpha was markedly higher than ERbeta in EPCs derived from women in menstrual phase.ConclusionsEPC proliferation is induced during the menstrual phase and proliferation can be affected by estrogen through ERalpha activation.