Estrogen Affects on Circadian Rhythm Gene Expression in Mouse Hearts
Hormones play an important role in the human body, and are also involved in almost all biochemical processes. Estrogen in particular is vital for the development of secondary sexual traits as well as for cell division. Like any hormone, estrogen has an optimum level depending on its location. The circadian rhythm lasts approximately 24 hours and is of utmost importance for living organisms, regulating the production of hormones, cell division, brain function and others. Previous investigations suggest that estrogen plays an important role in protecting the heart, a subject which is still under debate. Nonetheless, a higher percentage of cardiovascular disease is expressed by men and post-menopausal women who have lower levels of estrogen.
Previous investigations using micro ARRAYS has shown that the presence or absence of estrogen affects thousands of different genes in the heart. At the same time, studies show that the majority of cardiac arrhythmias occur in the early hours of the morning. Dismayed by this reason and the high incidence of various cases of cardiac arrest, we focused our research on the relationship between circadian rhythm genes in the absence or presence of estrogen. We are trying to proved if estrogen affect the circadian rhythm gene expression on the heart. This research involved the utilization of the model animal (ARKO) and the technique of RT-PCR to verify genetic expression. This research will be directed towards the B-Mal, Per2 and clock genes.