Genetic safeguard protects the female heart—and what happens when it's lost

MedicalXpress | 七月 14, 2026

Men and women are not born with the same risk of heart disease, and for decades scientists have struggled to explain why. A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, published in Genes & Development, offers an answer: The female heart depends on a molecular safeguard that the male heart can largely do without—and when that safeguard is removed, female hearts fail while male hearts keep beating.