THE ROLE OF SEX HORMONES AND MENOPAUSE IN LUNG INFLAMMATION IN BRAIN DEATH DONORS

• Grant number: 24/20768-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Immunology - Cellular Immunology
• Principal Investigator: Ana Cristina Breithaupt Faloppa
• Grantee: Elizabeth Cristina Miola
• Host Institution: Instituto do Coração Professor Euryclides de Jesus Zerbini (INCOR). Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da USP (HCFMUSP). Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 23/00728-6 - Importance of female sex hormones and menopause in brain dead donors: identification of miRNAs as markers of organ quality, AP.R

Abstract

Organ transplantation is a treatment option for patients in advanced stages of the disease, however the reduced number of available organs is an obstacle. The high demand of patients on the waiting list for organs means that criteria for the use of marginal donors are becoming more flexible and among these donors, with the aging of the population, there is the inclusion of older donors. Brain death (BD) is considered an important stress factor that affects organs before transplantation, especially the lungs, activating the inflammatory and immunological response. Clinical and experimental studies confirm the donor's sex as one of the factors that influence the outcome of lung transplantation and that female rats have greater lung inflammation when compared to males.Considering the importance of female sex hormones (HSF) in the development of systemic inflammation and its acute reduction after ME, data show that estradiol treatment attenuates pulmonary inflammation, reducing the leukocyte infiltrate and decreasing the pulmonary release of inflammatory mediators. The progressive deterioration and loss of functionality that characterizes the aging process affects different systems and organs of the body in different ways and in females it is closely linked to the hormonal profile. In this context, studying the changes generated by the menopause process, associating aging and the reduction in the concentration of HSF, taking into account the increase in the age of donors, is of interest. Therefore, the objective of the present project will be to investigate the effects of menopause/aging and treatment with membrane estradiol receptor agonist (GPER) in rats submitted to brain death, analyzing signaling pathways and lung histopathological changes resulting from brain death.