Project description:Arterial pressure (AP) is lower in pre-menopausal women than in men of similar age. Pre-menopausal women exhibit a lower sympathetic outflow and a greater baroreceptor reflex, however molecular mechanisms for the gender differences of AP regulation are still not well understood. Since the hypothalmus is strongly functionnaly connected to the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS), a pivotal region of the medulla oblongata for regulating the set-point of AP, we hypothesized that a different neuronal functions at the level of hypothalamus between men and women could contribute to the gender difference in cardiovascular homeostasis. Since females Spontaneous Hypertensive Rats (SHRs) clearly exhibit lower AP levels than their male counterparts at similar age, we investigated whether the hypothalamus of SHRs exhibit gender differences in gene expression by using microarray technique.
Project description:Arterial pressure (AP) is lower in pre-menopausal women than in men of similar age. Pre-menopausal women exhibit a lower sympathetic outflow and a greater baroreceptor reflex, however molecular mechanisms for the gender differences of AP regulation are still not well understood. Since the hypothalmus is strongly functionnaly connected to the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS), a pivotal region of the medulla oblongata for regulating the set-point of AP, we hypothesized that a different neuronal functions at the level of hypothalamus between men and women could contribute to the gender difference in cardiovascular homeostasis. Females Spontaneous Hypertensive Rats (SHRs) clearly exhibit lower AP levels than their male counterparts at similar age and their hypothalamus is characterized by a specific gene expression profile. This gender dependence of AP level is less marked in the normotensive strain, Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY). In this study, we investigated the gender-dependent gene expression profile of the hypothalamus of WKY rats by using microarray technique.
Project description:Medulla oblongata is a region of the brain containing multiple blood pressure regulation centers, including the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS), a pivotal region for regulating the set-point of arterial pressure. Our previous findings suggest that the NTS of male pre-hypertensive rats and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) exhibits abnormal inflammatory condition compared with that of normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats. Females of SHRs exhibit a lower blood pressure than their male counterpart but the molecular mechanism is not well described. To unveil the gender differences in the central regulation of blood pressure, we investigated the gene expression profile of cytokines and chemokines in the medulla oblongata of female SHRs compared to that of their male counterparts.
