Testosterone treatment increases thromboxane function in rat cerebral arteries

Abstract

We previously showed that testosterone, administered in vivo, increases the tone of cerebral arteries. A possible underlying mechanism is increased vasoconstriction through the thromboxane A2 (TxA2) pathway. Therefore, we investigated the effect of chronic testosterone treatment (4 wk) on TxA2 synthase levels and the contribution of TxA2 to vascular tone in rat middle cerebral arteries (MCAs). Using immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy, we demonstrated that TxA2 synthase is present in MCA segments in both smooth muscle and endothelial layers. Using Western blot analysis, we found that TxA 2 synthase protein levels are higher in cerebral vessel homogenates from testosteronetreated orchiectomized (ORXϩT) rats compared with orchiectomized (ORX) control animals. Functional consequences of changes in cerebrovascular TxA2 synthase were determined using cannulated, pressurized MCA segments in vitro. Constrictor responses to the TxA2 mimetic U-46619 were not different between the ORXϩT and ORX groups. However, dilator responses to either the selective TxA 2 synthase inhibitor furegrelate or the TxA2-endoperoxide receptor (TP) antagonist SQ-29548 were greater in the ORXϩT compared with ORX group. In endothelium-denuded arteries, the dilation to furegrelate was attenuated in both the ORX and ORXϩT groups, and the difference between the groups was abolished. These data suggest that chronic testosterone treatment enhances TxA 2-mediated tone in rat cerebral arteries by increasing endothelial TxA 2 synthesis without altering the TP receptors mediating constriction. The effect of in vivo testosterone on cerebrovascular TxA 2 synthase, observed here after chronic hormone administration, may contribute to the risk of vasospasm and thrombosis related to cerebrovascular disease. thromboxane synthase; cerebral circulation; vascular smooth muscle; endothelium ALTHOUGH THE RISK for cardiovascular disease and stroke is higher in males, the influence of testosterone on vascular function is not well understood (25). This lack of information also fuels concerns about the vascular impact of testosterone therapy for elderly men (33) and postmenopausal women (28) as well as the use of anabolic androgens in young athletes, both male and female (30). Androgens appear to influence a variety of cardiovascular risk factors including lipid profile, platelet aggregation, blood pressure, and vascular reactivity (1,25,31,44). Data on vascular reactivity, however, are limited and often conflicting. For example, acute exposure of arteries to testosterone has been found to cause either vasodilation or vasoconstriction (6,7,25,40,43), whereas chronic testosterone exposure in vivo results in increased vascular tone (13)(14)(15)31). A better understanding of how testosterone modulates vascular function is needed to explain these observations. In the cerebral circulation, the critical vascular bed in stroke, arterial tone is elevated after in vivo treatment with testosterone (14, 15, 31). Using rat middle cerebral arteries (MCAs), we demonstrated th...

Role of aromatase in sex-specific cerebrovascular endothelial function in mice

“…Several studies have also shown that testosterone can cause vasodilation by acting via large conductance calcium-activated potassium channels (10,58,62). However, chronic testosterone supplementation has been shown to increase myogenic tone (13,18) and production of thromboxane A 2 , a potent vasoconstrictor in cerebral arteries (17). It is possible that enhanced estradiol in females and/or elevated testosterone in males contributes to the observed sex difference.…”

“…Like estradiol, testosterone has been shown to effect vascular function. However, effects of testosterone on vascular function are not well defined, since testosterone has been reported to have both vasodilatory effects (8,10,14,24,40,58,62) and vasoconstrictor effects (13,17,18).…”

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