Key result
NLRP3 deficiency reduces atherosclerosis in female but not male mice, mediated by sex hormones.
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mice developed significantly smaller lesions in the aortic sinus and decreased lipid content in aorta en face, but a similar protection was not observed in males. Ovariectomized female mice lost protection from atherosclerosis in the setting of NLRP3 deficiency, whereas atherosclerosis showed a greater dependency on NLRP3 in castrated males. Thus, castration increased the dependency of atherosclerosis on the NLRP3 inflammasome, suggesting that testosterone may block inflammation in atherogenesis. Conversely, ovariectomy reduced the dependency on NLRP3 inflammasome components for atherogenesis, suggesting that estrogen may promote inflammasome-mediated atherosclerosis.
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Chen et al. (2020) studied Atherosclerosis. NLRP3 deficiency vs. NLRP3 sufficiency (wild-type equivalent) was evaluated on Atherosclerotic lesion size and lipid content. NLRP3 deficiency decreased atherosclerotic lesions in female but not male LDL receptor-deficient mice, a sex-specific effect that was reversed by ovariectomy and castration.
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