Abstract 19409: Post-Injury Administration of Estrogen Enhances Myocardial Functional Recovery and Improves Mitochondrial Performance Following Ischemia/Reperfusion

Introduction: Although estrogen-mediated cardiac protection has been appreciated for many years, most these studies utilize an approach of pre-ischemic treatment in animal experiments and the preventive usage in clinical studies. Given clinical therapeutic potential in the treatment of acute myocardial ischemia, a strategy of post-ischemic administration of estrogen will be more practical compared to pretreatment. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of this new approach on myocardial protection following ischemia, and to determine its influence on distribution of cardiac mitochondrial (mito-) connexin-43 (Cx43), mito-caveolin-3 (Cav3), and mito-estrogen receptor (ER)α, considering that the interaction of ERα/Cx43/Cav3 has been shown to improve mitochondrial function in other disease models. Methods: Langendorff perfused mouse hearts (age-matched normal females, ovariectomized females [OVX F] and OVX F with acute post-ischemic treatment of 17β-estradiol [E2, 2nM], n=4-6/...