Scientists uncover the link between estrogen and heart health in women

Dr Chengxue Helena Qin and Dr Jaideep Singh.

7 July 2025

A new preclinical study from Monash University has uncovered the role of female sex hormone estrogen in protecting the hearts of women with high blood pressure – a link that, until now, has not been fully understood by scientists.

The study, led by the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) and published in; Communications Biology, a Nature portfolio journal, identified that estrogen increases the levels of a natural protein called ‘annexin-A1’ (ANXA1) in female mice. The MIPS team has previously shown that ANXA1 plays a critical role in regulating blood pressure.

In the current study, the researchers discovered that when ANXA1 is missing, high blood pressure leads to more severe damage in the heart and main blood vessels, especially in females.

The findings suggest that the estrogen-ANXA1 association plays an important role in protecting women’s hearts from damage caused by high blood pressure. This discovery could pave the way for new treatments, such as medicines that mimic ANXA1 – explicitly designed to improve heart health in women.

First author and Monash University Honorary Fellow Dr Jaideep Singh said this research helps explain why women may experience heart disease differently from men, especially when they have high blood pressure.

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