Estrogen deprivation and replacement modulate cerebral capillary density with vascular expression of angiogenic molecules in middle-aged female rats.

The effect of postmenopausal estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) on the risk or severity of cerebrovascular disorders is as yet unclear, and the evidence for flow preservation being a mechanism of estrogen neuroprotection remains elusive. The authors examined whether estrogen-mediated flow-preserving neuroprotective mechanisms, if any, may involve its angiogenic action. This study was conducted using middle-aged (44 weeks) female rats because of the importance of aging in cerebrovascular disease in women. Middle-aged female rats were subjected to sham operation, ovariectomy, or ovariectomy with ERT. The anatomic cerebral capillary morphology showed a significant reduction in the total capillary density in the frontal cortex after ovariectomy. This was associated with marked decreases in protein and gene expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and its angiogenic receptors in cerebral vessels, as demonstrated by immunohistochemistry and hybridization. The expression levels of both estrogen receptor (ER) subtypes, ERalpha and ERbeta, in cerebral vessels were significantly reduced after ovariectomy, but ERbeta was more dramatically downregulated as assessed by the ERbeta/ERalpha ratio. These ovariectomy-induced changes were completely prevented by ERT. Vascular endothelial growth factor appears to be a critical regulatory molecule for physiologic cerebral angiogenesis in middle-aged female rats and may play an important role in the flow-preserving neuroprotective action of estrogen through its angiogenic and antiapoptotic properties.