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. 2024 Feb 20;94(2):127-132.
doi: 10.24875/ACM.23000018.

Influence of sexual hormones on Chagas disease

Oscar A Reboreda-Hernandez  1 , Rocio Ortiz-Butron  2 , Benjamin Nogueda-Torres  3 , Nayeli Gonzalez-Rodriguez  1
Affiliations

Influence of sexual hormones on Chagas disease

Oscar A Reboreda-Hernandez et al. Arch Cardiol Mex. .

Abstract
in English, Spanish

Objective: Analyze sex hormone's influence during Chagas´ Disease.

Methods: Male and female BALB/c mice were divided into six groups, four experimental (sham, orchiectomized, orchiectomized and supplemented with estradiol, orchiectomized supplemented with testosterone, oophorectomized, oophorectomized and supplemented with estradiol, and oophorectomized and supplemented with testosterone), and two control (healthy and intraperitoneally with T. cruzi strain NINOA infected). Clinical data were recorded daily, parasitemia was evaluated using a Neubauer chamber during the infection, and heart histopathological analysis was performed using the paraffin embedding technique. To analyze parasitemia curves and the area under the parametric curves, two-way ANOVA test was performed to correlate groups´ data. P-values <0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Results: Higher mortality rates, cardiomegaly, hepatomegaly, ascites, edema, higher parasitemia levels, more amastigote nests, and more severe inflammatory infiltrate were found in higher testosterone concentration mice, whereas in higher estradiol concentration groups, paresia, prostration, edema, and necrosis were found.

Conclusions: Our results showed that testosterone increased infection severity, whereas estradiol had the opposite effect. This research improves the understanding of sex hormones´infuence upon this infection to contribute with the handling of Chagas´disease.

Objetivo:: Analizar la influencia de las hormonas durante la enfermedad de Chagas.

Métodos:: Se separaron grupos de ratones macho y hembras BALB/c, todos infectados con T. cruzi (cepa NINOA), 4 grupos experimentales de machos (Sham, orquidectamizados, orquidectimezados y suplementados con estradiol, orquidectamizaos y suplementados con testosterona). 4 grupos experimentales de hembras (oforectomizadas, oforectomizadas y suplementadas con estradiol, oforectomizadas y suplementadas con testosterona y sham), and y dos grupos control para cada sexo (sin infección e infectados intraperitonealmente con T. cruzi (cepa NINOA). Los datos clínicos fueron registrados diariamente, la parasitemia fue evaluada durante toda la infección utilizando una cámara de Neubauer y el análisis histopatológico del corazón fue realizada con la técnica de inclusión en parafina. Para el análisis de las curvas de parasitemia y el área bajo la curva, se realizó una prueba de ANOVA de dos vías, p < 0.05 fueron considerados estadísticamente diferentes.

Resultados:: Las mayores tasas de mortalidad, cardiomegalia, hepatomegalia y mayor infiltrado inflamatorio, se encontró en los ratones con una mayor concentración de testosterona. En contraste los ratones con mayor concentración de estradiol presentaron paresia, postración edema y necrosis.

Conclusiones:: Nuestros resultados ponen en manifiesto que la testosterona incrementa la severidad del curso de la enfermedad de Chagas, mientras que el estradiol tuvo el efecto opuesto. Este trabajo mejora el entendimiento del rol que juegan las hormonas sexuales en esta infección para contribuir en un mejor manejo de la enfermedad de Chagas.

Keywords: Chagas disease; Estradiol; Gonadal steroid hormone; Testosterone; Trypanosoma cruzi.

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Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Parasitemia curves of the behavior of Trypanosoma cruzi in mice of each mice group among all the experiment; the lines are discontinued if the mice group died. A: females. 1. Uninfected (black). 2. T. cruzi-infected (green). 3. Sham T. cruzi-infected (purple). 4. Oophorectomized T. cruzi-infected (red). 5. Oophorectomized and supplemented with estradiol T. cruzi-infected (pink). 6. Oophorectomized and supplemented with testosterone T. cruzi-infected (blue). B: males. 1. Uninfected (black). 2. T. cruzi-infected (green). 3. Sham T. cruzi-infected (purple). 4. Orchiectomized T. cruzi-infected (red). 5. Orchiectomized and supplemented with estradiol T. cruzi-infected (pink). 6. Orchiectomized and supplemented with testosterone T. cruzi-infected (blue).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Parasitemia presented in Trypanosoma cruzi-infected mice. Males (black) and females (gray). 1. Uninfected, 2. T. cruzi-infected. 3. Sham T. cruzi-infected. 4. Gonadectomized T. cruzi-infected. 5. Gonadectomized and supplemented with estradiol T. cruzi-infected. 6. Gonadectomized and supplemented with testosterone T. cruzi-infected.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mortality of the Trypanosoma cruzi-infected mice. Males (black) and females (gray). 1. Uninfected. 2. T. cruzi-infected. 3. Sham T. cruzi-infected. 4. Gonadectomized T. cruzi-infected. 5. Gonadectomized and supplemented with estradiol T. cruzi-infected. 6. Gonadectomized and supplemented with testosterone T. cruzi-infected.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Microscopic analysis of the heart tissues of Trypanosoma cruzi-infected mice. Heart tissues were stained according to the HE technique to show the T. cruzi amastigote nests NINOA strain, edema, and the inflammatory infiltrate. The photograph was taken at ×40 magnification. A: healthy mice tissue. B: heart tissue T. cruzi-infected female mouse, amastigote nest, and mild acute inflammatory infiltrate. C: heart tissue T. cruzi-infected male mouse, amastigote nests, edema, and severe acute inflammatory infiltrate. Amastigote nest (white arrow); inflammatory infiltrate (black arrow).
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