Jennifer Sullivan's rats
Jennifer Sullivan, shown in
this Medical College of
Georgia photo, received the
Merck New Investigator
Award in 2006 and the
American Physiological
Society's New Investigator
Award in 2007 for her
work on rat models of
hypertension. Photo by
Toni BakerNews-Medical (2007) reports on Jennifer Sullivan's research on the connections between renal (kidney) function, hypertension, and gender: "Men and women are more than just sex hormones" says Sullivan. In her rat models, (e.g. Sullivan et al, 2005; Sullivan et al, 2006; Sasser et al, 2007), Sullivan has found parallels to human data that suggests women are protected from kidney problems, not only by their hormones, but also by other factors. Removing testicles from male rats improves the blood pressure and kidney function of male rats more than removing ovaries from female rats worsens these factors.
After menopause, Sullivan has found that blood pressure and related kidney problems worsen rapidly for female humans and rats, becoming worse than they are for age-matched males. Sullivan's findings may have implications for the treatment of hypertension in older women. "A lot of women are on these drugs [angiotensin receptor blockers and ace inhibitors] too and I'm not sure it's doing them a lot of good," she says.
Since my own blood pressure has always been on the lower end, even after it was raised by testosterone treatment, I don't know much about the effects of hypertension on renal health. My own kidneys have always been in more danger from bladder infections. However, according to WebMD high blood pressure and diabetes are the most common causes of kidney problems.