Figure 1.

Sex-specific cardiac aging in male and female with respect to changes in major sex hormones testosterone and estrogen. While aging is characterized by ventricular hypertrophy, fibrosis, and changes in ventricular function, several mechanisms are more pronounced in the male heart compared to female. For example, the aged male heart demonstrates eccentric remodeling, systolic dysfunction, and lower adrenergic sensitivity as opposed to aged female heart, which demonstrates diastolic dysfunction and concentric remodeling. While some of these changes likely coincide with temporal changes in sex hormones, others are likely regulated by non-hormonal changes, or occur via different temporal patterns in the male and female heart.