Testosterone Intervention Study On Chronic Heart Failure Of Male Rats With Post Myocardial Infarction

Background and purposeHeart failure is a complex clinical syndrome that can result from any structural or functional cardiac disorder that impairs the ability of the ventricle to fill with or eject blood. Disease progression arises from prolonged neurohormonal and pro-inflammatory cytokine activation and is associated with a metabolic shift favoring catabolism, vasodilator incapacity, and loss of skeletal muscle bulk and function. The incidence of heart failure changed little among men from the 1950s to the 1990s. The rates of death after the onset of heart failure declined by about one third during this period. Despite the favorable trends in survival, heart failure remains highly fatal: among subjects who were given a diagnosis of heart failure, more than 50 percent were dead in five years. Obviously, there remains a need for therapies which alleviate the suffering associated with CHF, reducing mortality, prolonging life as well as improving survival quality.In men, androgens are important determinants of anabolic function and physical strength, androgens also possess anti-inflammatory and vasodilatory properties. Low plasma levels of testosterone have been described in men with CHF, and correlate...