Anti-Müllerian Hormone Concentrations Are Inversely Associated With Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Premenopausal Women

Abstract

Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), which is secreted by granulosa cells of late preantral and small antral follicles, is a marker of ovarian reserve. The association of ovarian reserve with subclinical atherosclerosis in women of reproductive age is currently unknown. We primary investigated whether AMH levels are associated with markers of subclinical atherosclerosis in healthy, normally menstruating women. In this cross-sectional study, vascular structure and function were assessed by measurement of carotid and femoral intima–media thickness (IMT), flow-mediated dilation, carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity and augmentation index. Lipid profile and serum AMH concentrations were also measured. Seventy premenopausal women, aged 32.7 ± 6.5 years, were included. Mean AMH levels were lower in smokers than in non-smokers and negatively associated with total cholesterol (TC) levels. An inverse association between mean AMH concentrations and femoral and carotid IMT in all segments was observed. No correlation with other markers of subclinical atherosclerosis or established cardiovascular (CV) risk factors was found. After multivariable adjustment, the association between AMH concentrations and combined carotid IMT or carotid bulb IMT remained significant. In conclusion, in healthy, normally ovulating women, AMH concentrations are negatively associated with subclinical atherosclerosis indices and TC levels, independently of established CV risk factors.

Outdoor air pollution and diminished ovarian reserve among infertile Korean women

“…Those with serum AMH as low as 0.5-1.1 ng/mL are likely to respond poorly to ovarian stimulation and thereby show low pregnancy rates in assisted reproductive technology treatments [26]. In addition, DOR manifested as low AMH has predictive values for the risk of cardiovascular disease [27,28]. The ovarian reserve of each woman was determined by measuring levels of AMH.…”

Anti‐Müllerian hormone and vascular dysfunction in women with chronic kidney disease

“…Female factor infertility in young women has recently been recognized as an important CVD risk factor (Hanson et al, 2017;Mahalingaiah et al, 2017;Quinn & Cedars, 2018). Low levels of anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH), a surrogate marker of ovarian reserve, have been associated with CVD risk factors (obesity, insulin resistance, lipid disturbances, hypertension, and arterial intimamedial thickness) (Bleil et al, 2013;van Dorp et al, 2013;Lambrinoudaki et al, 2020;Looby et al, 2016), as well as cardiovascular disease itself, notably coronary artery disease (de Kat et al, 2017). Although a causal relationship between AMH and CVD has not been fully established, upregulation of AMH receptor genes demonstrated in the hearts of neonates with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, suggests a systemic vascular role for AMH and supports the notion of a causal relationship between AMH and vascular health (Ricci et al, 2010).…”

Circulating anti-Müllerian hormone levels and markers of subclinical cardiovascular disease in middle-aged and older men

“…The main strength of this study is its prospective design, which enabled us to investigate both cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between AMH and different measures of subclinical CVD. Most previous studies only studied these associations cross-sectionally, and mostly in women [5][6][7][8][9][10]. Furthermore, previous research on the relation of AMH with CVD related outcomes did not examine potential confounding by testosterone, estradiol and DHEAS.…”

“…Recent epidemiological research indeed suggests that higher circulating AMH levels may be associated with a lower risk of both subclinical CVD [5,6] and clinical CVD [7,8] in women, but studies in men are scarce [9,10]. In addition, most previous studies had a cross-sectional design and did not adjust for potential confounding by circulating sex hormones, which hampers establishing whether AMH could play a causal role in CVD pathology in both sexes.…”