G6PD-deficiency Mitigates Gender-dependent Differences in the Aortic Stiffness in Rats

Authors: Samuel Fatehi, Aaditya Gupte, Christina Signoretti, Melinee D’silva, Sachin Gupte

G6PD-deficiency Mitigates Gender-dependent Differences in the Aortic Stiffness in Rats - S.

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This poster presentation, co-authored by Samuel Fatehi and colleagues investigates how glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency impacts gender-dependent differences in large artery stiffness using a rat model. The study highlights that wild-type male rats exhibit significantly higher aortic stiffness—measured via pulse wave velocity (PWV)—compared to wild-type females, which correlates with an increased, G6PD-dependent upregulation of vascular remodeling and inflammatory genes like Lox, Fn1, Ccl5, and Serpine1 in males. Interestingly, using CRISPR-Cas9-generated G6PD-deficient mutant rats ($G6PD^{S188F}$), the researchers found that these sex-based differences in aortic stiffness and gene expression were entirely mitigated, demonstrating no significant variation between the mutant males and females.

Ultimately, the findings conclude that higher baseline G6PD activity in males contributes to increased aortic stiffness, suggesting that a deficiency in the G6PD enzyme paradoxically confers a protective vascular effect against cardiovascular remodeling