Sex and estrogens in protection against circulatory stress reactions

From Wistar rats, data are presented which indicate that inbred females a) have a greater ability to clear particulate matter from the blood stream than do males of the same strain; b) are significantly more resistant to two different forms of lethal circulatory stress (e.g., intestinal ischemia and whole-body trauma) than are males; and c) exhibit a greater resistance to undergo reticuloendothelial system (RES) phagocytic depression after both forms of lethal trauma than do males. Estradiol treatment of males, using either acute, massive (1 or 10 mg/kg) or multiple, low dose (10 or 100 mug/kg) regimens, confers trauma resistance on such animals. Such estradiol treated male rats exhibit hyperactive RES's. These estradiol-treated males, when subjected to either lethal ischemia or trauma, fail to demonstrate the early RES phagocytic depression seen in untreated controls. Untreated female as well as estradiol-treated male rats exhibit significantly higher arterial blood pressures post-trauma than do untreated male rats. Direct microscopic observation of rat mesenteries indicr whole-b0dy trauma, the untreated females as well as the estradiol-treated males exhibit significantly less dilatation of microscopic capacitance vessels (i.e., venules) than do untreated male rats. The data reported herein could be used to suggest that estrogenic hormones may play pivotal roles in a) the amelioration of an organism's reaction to systemic stress; and b) control of macrophage and peripheral vascular functions.