RESUMEN

The role of sex hormones in lung is known. The three main sex steroid receptors, estrogen, progesterone, and androgen, have not been sufficiently studied in airway smooth muscle cells (ASMC), and the sex hormone regulation on these receptors is unknown. We examined the presence and regulation of sex hormone receptors in female and male rat ASMC by Western blotting and flow cytometry. Gonadectomized rats were treated with 17ß-estradiol, progesterone, 17ß-estradiol + progesterone, or testosterone. ASMC were enzymatically isolated from tracheas and bronchi. The experiments were performed with double staining flow cytometry (anti-α-actin smooth muscle and antibodies to each hormone receptor). ERα, ERß, tPR, and AR were detected in females or males. ERα was upregulated by E2 and T and downregulated by P4 in females; in males, ERα was downregulated by P4, E + P, and T. ERß was downregulated by each treatment in females, and only by E + P and T in males. tPR was downregulated by P4, E + P, and T in females. No hormonal regulation was observed in male receptors. AR was downregulated in males treated with E + P and T. We have shown the occurrence of sex hormone receptors in ASMC and their regulation by the sex hormones in female and male rats.

RESUMEN

Gonadal hormones regulate expression and activation of protein tau. Tibolone is a drug used as first- choice comprehensive treatment for the relief of menopausal symptoms, because it and its various metabolites have estrogenic properties and progestogenic/androgenic effects; however, the effect on the activation of tau protein and its signaling cascade in the brain is unknown. We studied the effect of chronic administration of estradiol (E2), progesterone (P4), and tibolone (TIB) on the expression and phosphorylation of microtubule-associated protein tau and glycogen synthase kinase-3ß (GSK3ß) in the hippocampus and cerebellum of ovariectomized rats. Ovariectomized adult female rats were implanted with pellets of vehicle, E2, or P4 or were treated with TIB by oral administration for 60 days. The animals were sacrificed, and tissue proteins were analyzed by Western blot. We observed that, in the hippocampus, administration of E2, P4, or TIB significantly decreased the protein content of hyperphosphorylated tau and increased the tau dephosphorylated form, whereas only treatment with TIB increased the content of the phosphorylated form of GSK3ß. In the cerebellum, E2 and TIB treatments resulted in a significant decrease in the expression of hyperphosphorylated tau, whereas E2 and TIB increased phosphorylated GSK3ß; P4 had no effect. These results indicate that chronic administration of gonadal hormones and tibolone modulates tau and GSK3ß phosphorylation in hippocampus and cerebellum of the rat and may exert a neuroprotective effect in these tissues.

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RESUMEN

The congestive heart failure is a pathological process characterized by the incapacity of the heart to maintain an adequate cardiac perfusion for the tissue metabolism, and that can be secondary to diverse causes, that give as result, alterations in the lusitropism, inotropism or in the cronotropism. Over 4.6 persons per hundred in the United States alone carry this diagnosis, and it is the cause of death in several hundred thousand patients each year, with a 35% mortality over 5 years. In the last years, have existed important advances in the pharmacological treatment of this disease in it's terminal stages. The increase in the knowledge on the physiopathology of the heart failure, has taken place for the use of new schemes of treatment, where it excels the use of vasoactive amines, Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor AT1 antagonists, etc; nevertheless we whereupon that most of these drugs that at the present display a favorable answer to the disease, has the disadvantage of increasing the consumption of oxygen by the own myocardium tissue. Levosimendan has a better profile of security than its predecessors (amrinone and milrinone), improves the haemodynamics parameters of special significant form in the cardiac output, the systolic pressure of the pulmonary artery and the telediastolic pressure of the left ventricle, without significantly increasing the consumption of oxygen by the myocardium. Levosimendan is a new and relevant calcium sensitizer developed for the short-term intravenous treatment of congestive heart failure.

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