ACE inhibitor use was associated with lower serum dehydroepiandrosterone concentrations in older men

Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) activity may influence the production of adrenal androgen precursors and testosterone. Use of ACE inhibitors may therefore have an influence on serum sex hormone concentrations in older men.

1486 out of 2,000 community-dwelling Chinese men aged 65years who participated in a cohort study were randomly selected to have archived fasting morning serum analyzed for androgen precursors and sex hormones. DNA was extracted from whole blood and analyzed for ACE gene I/D polymorphism.

Subjects with the ACE gene D allele (higher ACE activity) had higher serum dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) sulphate and DHEA than those with I/I genotype (P=0.014 and 0.018 respectively, Mann Whitney test). These differences were not significant after Bonferroni correction. Among those with history of hypertension, but without diabetes mellitus or cardiac failure, users of ACE inhibitors had significantly lower serum DHEA (median 1.78 versus 1.49ng/ml in non-users, P=0.0074, Mann Whitney test) and also tended to have lower serum androstenedione and androst-5-ene-3beta,17beta-diol (0.68 versus 0.72ng/ml in non-users; 552.4 versus 624.1pg/ml respectively, both P values <0.05). Serum testosterone and estradiol were not significantly changed.

ACE inhibitor use was associated with lower serum DHEA in older men.