The Role of Androgens in Angiogenesis and Endothelial Progenitor Cell Mobilisation

Increasing evidence suggests that sex steroids, including male sex hormones (androgens), may an important role in regulating processes critical to cardiovascular health and disease. The capacity for the body to grow new blood vessels (“angiogenesis”) in response to occluded arteries is a critical reparative process in the cardiovascular response to injury. Recently, endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) derived from bone marrow have been implicated in new blood vessel formation and in cardiac repair in cardiovascular disease. While androgens have long been known to stimulate stem cell proliferation, their effects in EPCs are unknown. The current study will investigate the effects of androgen therapy in young and older men on EPC mobilisation and function. By better understanding the role of androgens in cardiovascular health and disease, our study will substantially strengthen the evidence base on which to guide the increasing efforts to exploit the wider therapeutic benefits of androgens, particularly in the context of the rapidly growing population of aging men.