Sex Hormones and Cardiometabolic Health: Role of Estrogen and Estrogen Receptors.
With increased life expectancy, women will spend over three decades of life postmenopause. The menopausal transition increases susceptibility to metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Thus, it is more important than ever to develop effective hormonal treatment strategies to protect aging women. Understanding the role of estrogens, and their biological actions mediated by estrogen receptors (ERs), in the regulation of cardiometabolic health is of paramount importance to discover novel targeted therapeutics. In this brief review, we provide a detailed overview of the literature, from basic science findings to human clinical trial evidence, supporting a protective role of estrogens and their receptors, specifically ERα, in maintenance of cardiometabolic health. In so doing, we provide a concise mechanistic discussion of some of the major tissue-specific roles of estrogens signaling through ERα. Taken together, evidence suggests that targeted, perhaps receptor-specific, hormonal therapies can and should be used to optimize the health of women as they transition through menopause, while reducing the undesired complications that have limited the efficacy and use of traditional hormone replacement interventions.
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California 90048.
Deborah
D
Clegg
Department of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095.
Andrea L
AL
Hevener
Division of Geriatric Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado 80045.|Denver Veterans Administration Medical Center, Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, Denver, Colorado 80220.
Kerrie L
KL
Moreau
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 8331150, Santiago, Chile.
Eugenia
E
Morselli
Advanced Center for Chronic Diseases and Center for Molecular Studies of the Cell, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 8380492, Chile.|Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Odontológicas, Facultad de Odontología, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 8380492, Chile.
Alfredo
A
Criollo
Division of Geriatric Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado 80045.
Rachael E
RE
Van Pelt
Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211.
Victoria J
VJ
Vieira-Potter
D000818:Animals; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; D004967:Estrogens / Q000502:physiology*; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008659:Metabolic Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D008660:Metabolism / Q000235:genetics; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
D004967:Estrogens; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen