By and large, researchers think sex hormones drive sex differences in valve tissue stiffening. Indeed, decreasing estrogen levels during menopause can exacerbate heart fibrosis. However, studies on cardiovascular disease in XX and XY mice have found that sex differences still persist even after surgically excising the reproductive organs that produce sex hormones.
AuthorDr Brian Aguado
Assistant Professor, University of California San Diego.
Dr. Brian Aguado is currently an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at UC San Diego, where his laboratory research is focused on studying sex differences in cardiovascular disease using biomaterial technologies. Dr. Aguado completed his BS degree in Biomechanical Engineering from Stanford University and his MS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University. He also obtained his certificate in Management for Scientists and Engineers from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he received postdoctoral awards from the National Institutes of Health and Burroughs Wellcome Fund to support his research. Dr. Aguado currently serves on the editorial advisory boards for the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A and GEN Biotechnology. Dr. Aguado is also a dedicated science communicator outside of the lab and seeks to engage historically excluded and marginalized populations in the sciences. Most recently, he co-founded LatinXinBME (Twitter: @LatinXinBME), a new social media initiative dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive community of Latinx biomedical engineers and scientists to support each other personally and professionally through their careers. For his efforts, he was named one of the 100 Most Inspiring Latinx Scientists in America by Cell Press and received the Biomaterials Diversity Award for Young Investigator from the Biomaterials journal.