Echem Cinthya, Akamine Eliana H
Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Front Aging. 2021 Jun 24;2:709914. doi: 10.3389/fragi.2021.709914. eCollection 2021.
Human life span expectancy has increased, and aging affects the organism in several ways, leading, for example, to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. Age-adjusted prevalence of the cardiovascular diseases is higher in males than females. Aging also affects the gonadal sex hormones and the sex differences observed in cardiovascular diseases may be therefore impacted. Hormonal changes associated with aging may also affect the immune system and the immune response is sexually different. The immune system plays a role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. In this context, toll-like receptors (TLRs) are a family of pattern recognition receptors of the immune system whose activation induces the synthesis of pro-inflammatory molecules. They are expressed throughout the cardiovascular system and their activation has been widely described in cardiovascular diseases. Some recent evidence demonstrates that there are sex differences associated with TLR responses and that these receptors may be affected by sex hormones and their receptors, suggesting that TLRs may contribute to the sex differences observed in cardiovascular diseases. Recent evidence also shows that sex differences of TLRs in cardiovascular system persists with aging, which may represent a new paradigm about the mechanisms that contribute to the sex differences in cardiovascular aging. Therefore, in this mini review we describe the latest findings regarding the sex differences of TLRs and associated signaling in cardiovascular diseases during aging.
人类预期寿命已经延长，衰老从多个方面影响机体，例如导致心血管疾病风险增加。经年龄调整后，心血管疾病的患病率男性高于女性。衰老还会影响性腺性激素，因此可能会影响在心血管疾病中观察到的性别差异。与衰老相关的激素变化也可能影响免疫系统，而且免疫反应存在性别差异。免疫系统在心血管疾病的发病机制中起作用。在这种情况下，Toll样受体（TLRs）是免疫系统的一类模式识别受体，其激活可诱导促炎分子的合成。它们在整个心血管系统中表达，并且其激活在心血管疾病中已有广泛描述。最近的一些证据表明，TLR反应存在性别差异，并且这些受体可能受到性激素及其受体的影响，这表明TLRs可能导致了在心血管疾病中观察到的性别差异。最近的证据还表明，心血管系统中TLRs的性别差异会随着衰老而持续存在，这可能代表了一种关于导致心血管衰老性别差异机制的新范式。因此，在本综述中，我们描述了衰老过程中心血管疾病中TLRs性别差异及相关信号传导的最新研究结果。
