Andy, Maybe Targretin (and other rexinoids) have cardiovascular applications also:
Adolescents With High Insulin Resistance At Risk For Cardiovascular
Disease
WESTPORT, Sep 19 (Reuters) - The American Heart Association is hosting its 51st
annual Council for High Blood Pressure Research conference this week in Washington.
A team from the University of Minnesota presented evidence there that otherwise
healthy adolescents who have high levels of insulin resistance also tend to have a
number of risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Alan R. Sinaiko presented his group's findings on 181 randomly selected,
normotensive middle-school children. Body mass index was significantly lower in the
boys in the study, 21.2 versus 22.0 for the girls; and insulin resistance was higher in
boys than girls, 10.4 versus 7.9, respectively.
Insulin resistance correlated significantly with triglyceride and HDL cholesterol levels
and body mass index in boys and girls. Insulin resistance correlated with elevated
systolic blood pressure in the boys only. "The gender differences may represent early
signs of risk that predominate in adult males," the Minneapolis team said in a meeting
abstract.
Also at the meeting, it was reported that high androgen levels corresponded with high
systolic blood pressure in a group of healthy premenopausal African-American
women. Dr. Katherine Sherif and colleagues from Allegheny University of the Health
Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, told AHA conference participants that, in a
study of 93 such women, those with a high testosterone/estrogen ratio had higher body
mass indices and had systolic blood pressures that averaged about 10 mm Hg higher
than women with low testosterone/estrogen ratios.
Greater androgenicity appears to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, Dr.
Sherif's team noted, and may also be "...a component of the insulin-resistance
syndrome."
The American Heart Association reminded those in attendance that a number of
preparations for the treatment of climacteric symptoms of menopause contain
androgens.
-Westport Newsroom 203 319 2700 |
