Sex Differences in Cardiac Excitation-Contraction Coupling: Impact of Calcium Load and Ischemia/Reperfusion

There are important differences in heart function between men and women. Men and women also tend to get different heart diseases. Sex differences in heart function and heart diseases might be caused by differences in individual heart cells. One possibility is that the control of calcium levels inside heart cells differs between men and women. The heart needs calcium to contract, but too much calcium can lead to heart disease. Still, we know very little about sex differences in the control of calcium in heart cells, because most experiments use cells from male animals or don't specify the sex. Our study will look at how sex differences in the control of calcium affect the ability of the heart to contract normally and when the heart is exposed to high calcium loads. We will also look at how male and female heart cells deal with calcium in conditions such as a heart attack, where the blood supply to the heart is blocked. The goal of our study is to discover whether sex differences in the control of calcium change the way heart cells function, especially when cells are stressed with high calcium loads or a heart attack. This will allow us to find out if changes in the heart cells themselves are responsible for differences in heart function between males and females. Our results are important because they will help us understand why men and women respond differently to diseases like heart attacks.