The Effects of Testosterone and Its Receptors on Cardiovascular Development and Function / 中国生物化学与分子生物学报

ABSTRACT

Testosterone (T) is a key member of the androgen family, and its biosynthesis is regulated by the hypothalamie-pituitary-gonadal axis, and it is an important hormone that drives sexual differentiation and body development in mammals. The regulatory effects of testosterone on the organism include the androgen receptor (AR) mediated genomic pathway and the non-genomic pathway independent of AR. The genomic approach is that testosterone binds to AR in the cytoplasm through the cell membrane, and then the ligand receptor complex is transferred into the nucleus and combines with androgen response elements (ARE) in the promoter region of the androgen response gene to regulate the downstream gene expression. By binding to receptors on the cell membrane, testosterone rapidly activates related signaling molecules on the membrane and in the cell, and produces effects by initiating transmembrane signal transduction mechanisms, a process known as non-genomic pathway. The heart is the first functional organ formed during embryonic development. Its main function is to provide power for blood flow. Its morphogenesis and function maintenance are closely related to the cell type that constitutes the heart. It is known that the heart is one of the target organs of androgens. In recent years, studies have found that ligand-dependent transcription factor AR is distributed in various cell types of heart tissues, including cardiomyocytes, vascular smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells and cardiac fibroblasts. In addition to affecting gender differentiation and maintaining sexual characteristics, testosterone is also widely involved in the development and function maintenance of many tissues and organs. It also plays an important role in the regulation of cardiac physiological and pathological processes, including participating in heart development, inducing cardiac hypertrophy, regulating cardiac contraction, delaying cardiac aging and affecting vascular calcification. This paper reviews the function of testosterone and its receptor in the main cell types of the heart and their mechanism of action on cardiac physiological and pathological processes in order to provide a reference for the study of the mechanism of action of androgens in the heart.