Progesterone alleviates blood vessel aging in mice
Mice with their ovaries removed that received daily progesterone for six months showed dose-dependent reversals of blood vessel cell aging, inflammation, and impaired relaxation.
Dose-response
Limit: Senescence markers and artery relaxation served as proxies for blood vessel aging
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
In laboratory experiments, researchers studied mice whose ovaries had been removed to model menopause and human aortic endothelial cells—cells lining the main artery—grown in the lab. The mice received four or eight milligrams per kilogram of progesterone daily for six months. Ovary removal increased senescence, a state in which cells stop dividing, in blood vessel linings. It also lowered nitric oxide, increased inflammation and impaired artery relaxation. Progesterone dose-dependently reversed these changes in mice.
In the human cells, progesterone reduced chemically induced senescence and increased nitric oxide. Inhibiting sirtuin 1, an enzyme that limits cell senescence, blocked protection. Further molecular experiments supported a pathway involving progesterone receptor B and suppression of KLHL38, a protein linked to sirtuin 1 breakdown.
Why it matters
Declining sex hormones after menopause contribute to blood vessel aging and impaired function of vessel-lining cells. The work examined how progesterone signaling might be involved.
Caveats
These experiments in mice and lab-grown cells do not establish whether progesterone protects blood vessels in postmenopausal women. The findings were reported in an ESC Congress 2026 abstract.
The paper
The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University
ESC Congress 2026 Abstract, Oct 26, 2026
Presented at ESC Congress 2026
