Sex hormones and androgen receptor: risk factors of coronary heart disease in elderly men

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the variation of sex hormone and its receptor level in elderly male patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and to evaluate the correlations between CHD and sex hormone as well as sex hormone receptor.

Methods: Altogether 139 male CHD patients (CHD group) aged 60-92 years and 400 healthy men (control group) aged 60-90 years were included in this cross sectional study. The plasma concentrations of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), total testosterone (TT), free testosterone (FT), estradiol (E2), sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) were measured. The androgen receptor (AR) was tested by flow cytometry. Correlations between CHD and levels of sex hormones and AR were analyzed.

Results: Compared with the control group, the levels of DHEAS, TT, FT, SHBG, and the fluorescence intensity of AR in the CHD group significantly reduced (P < 0.05), while the levels of FSH and E2 significantly increased (P < 0.01). Age was negatively correlated with TT (r = -0.28, P = 0.00) and FT (r = -0.17, P = 0.01), while it was positively correlated with SHBG (r = 0.14, P = 0.04) and E2 (r = 0.33, P = 0.00). AR fluorescence intensity was negatively correlated with systolic blood pressure (r = -0.12, P = 0.01). Binary logistic regression analysis showed that TT, SHBG, and AR were all negatively correlated with CHD (P < 0.05).

Conclusions: Elderly male patients with CHD are found to have low levels of DHEAS, TT, FT, SHBG, and AR, while high concentrations of E2 and FSH. Low levels of TT and SHBG may be the potential risk factors of CHD in elderly men.