Ischemia and reperfusion injury following cardioplegic arrest is attenuated by age and testosterone deficiency in male but not female mice

Cardiovascular disease increases with age in both sexes. Treatment can require cardiac surgery, where the hearts are pre-treated with protective cardioplegic solution before ischemia and reperfusion (I/R). While endogenous estrogen is beneficial in I/R, whether testosterone is involved is uncertain and whether age modifies responses to I/R is unclear. We investigated sex- and age-specific differences in I/R injury in the hearts pre-treated with...