ABSTRACT
The incidence of cardiovascular disease in young women is low compared to their cohorts (Nabulsi et al., 1993; Manolio et al., 1993; Kafonek, 1994). However, post menopausal women receiving estrogen replacement therapy have a 50% lower incidence of cardiovascular disease when compared to untreated post menopausal women. In vitro, estradiol also inhibits proliferation of primary smooth muscle cells and explants of porcine coronary arteries (Vargas et al., 1993). In vivo estradiol treatment protects against experimental transplant arteriosclerosis (Foegh et al., 1987; Jacobsson et al., 1992; Cheng et al., 1991; Lou et al., 1996b; Saito et al., in press) and myointimal hyperplasia following balloon injury and inhibits DNA synthesis (Foegh et al., 1993). Female gender of the rat aorta isograft protects against myointimal hyperplasia when implanted in to recipients of either sex (Foegh et al., 1995). Collectively these data suggest that estradiol treatment preserves vascular integrity against immunological injury.
