Sex and Gender Differences in Cardiovascular-Renal-Metabolic Physiology and Pathophysiology

Dr. Reckelhoff is professor and chair of the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology and director of the Women’s Health Research Center at UMMC. She also worked as a critical care nurse for 11 years before completing her BS and PhD. Dr. Reckelhoff’s research focuses on the mechanisms responsible for the sex differences in blood pressure control and renal disease, postmenopausal hypertension, and polycystic ovary syndrome. She is currently serving as past president of the American Physiological Society made up of more than 10,000 members from around the world. She has received numerous awards, including the Harry Goldblatt Award in Cardiovascular Research from the American Heart Association (AHA) Council for High Blood Pressure Research, the Young Scholar Award from the American Society of Hypertension/Monarch Pharmaceuticals, the Lewis K. Dahl Award for Hypertension Research from the AHA Council on Hypertension, and the Ernest Starling Lecture Award from the American Physiological Society. Dr. Yanes Cardozo is an Associate Professor in the UMMC Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, and the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. She received an MD from the National University of Asuncion, Paraguay, and then came to UMMC to perform a postdoctoral fellowship in basic research. After receiving a Scientist Development Grant from the American Heart Association, Dr. Yanes Cardozo decided to finish her residency and fellowship in order to see patients. Although she sees all types of endocrinology patients, including those receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy, her expertise is in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) that is characterized by increased androgens, obesity and elevated blood pressure. She has been funded by NIH to study the role that adipose tissue plays in mediating the metabolic phenotype of PCOS. She is also the Director of Research for residents in the Department of Medicine. Dr. Noha Shawky is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, having received her Ph.D. from Mansoura University in Egypt, and then came to UMMC for a postdoctoral fellowship. She was promoted to Assistant Professor in 2021 and is currently funded by an American Heart Association Career Development Award and is a project leader for the Mississippi Center of Excellence in Perinatal Research COBRE, an NIH funded grant for junior investigators. Her research is on developmental programming of cardiovascular complications in offspring whose mothers have cardiovascular complications during pregnancy. She currently focuses on studying sex differences in the cardiorenal complications in adult offspring born to hyperandrogenemic females (a rat model of PCOS). PCOS women give birth to intrauterine growth-restricted offspring, a fact that could increase their risk of developing cardiovascular disease chronically. She has 18 publications.

1. Sex differences in cardiovascular, renal, metabolic responses to androgens
2. Long-term cardiovascular adaptations in women and her offspring following a pregnancy complicated by preeclampsia: insight from clinical and experimental studies
3. Cardiovascular Consequences in Offspring of Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. Does Sex Matter?
4. Sex differences in mechanisms of salt sensitivity of blood pressure
5. Dietary sodium, mineralocorticoid receptor and sex differences in endothelial function
6. Sex differences in the cardiometabolic consequences of maternal weight loss in the offspring.
7. Sex differences in relaxin responses in adult and aging
8. Role of sex hormones in heart pathophysiology
9. Cardiovascular consequences of androgen gender affirming therapy in transmasculine individuals
10. Sex differences in Stroke
11. Cardiovascular disease in menopause.
12. Androgens and acid-base metabolism.
13. Sex differences in hypertension
14. Impact of androgens on cardiovascular risk in women with polycystic ovary syndrome and transgender men