Cui Y, et al. - The possible link between serum sgp130 and testosterone and estradiol was investigated in male coronary atherosclerotic disease (CAD) patients. In this group of patients, a positive association of low levels of serum sgp130 with sex hormones was observed, indicating a crucial role of sgp130 in the presence of low and imbalanced sex hormones levels. Overall, regulation of sgp130 levels by rebalancing sex hormones has the potential to be a novel therapeutic for the treatment of CAD.

Methods

• Researchers recruited a total of 254 male patients with CAD and 122 male controls.
• They measured circulating IL-6, sIL-6, sgp130 by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
• They also quantified serum concentrations of hs-CRP, testosterone, estradiol, and other routine biochemical markers.
• Besides, they observed the impacts of testosterone and estradiol on sgp130 in HUVECs.

Results

• Findings reported that serum levels of sgp130, testosterone and estradiol and the ratio of testosterone and estradiol (T/E2) were obviously decreased in CAD patients compared with controls.
• Pearson correlation analysis demonstrated that serum sgp130 levels had positive correlations with testosterone (r = 0.295, p < 0.001) and estradiol (r = 0.338,p < 0.001) levels in CAD patients.
• Researchers found that it was evident in multiple regression analysis that serum sgp130 was positively associated with estradiol (Β-coefficient = 0.450, p < 0.001) and T/E2 ratio (Β-coefficient = 0.257,p = 0.001).
• Furthermore, as per observations, basic studies found that supernatant sgp130 levels of HUVECs were significantly increased by the cooperativity of testosterone and estradiol.