Prevention of coronary atherosclerosis by estrogen-androgen administration in the cholesterol-fed chick.

Estrogens are highly effective both prophylactieally and therapeutically against cholesterol-induced coronary atherogenesis in cockerels. The relative immunity of premenopausal women to coronary sclerosis may be related to the presence of these ovarian hormones. Therefore, estrogens may be useful in the treatment of human coronary atherosclerosis. With this object in mind, the elimination of the feminizing effects of estrogens would be highly desirable. The present experiments prove that concomitant exhibition of androgens and estrogens maintain masculine sex characteristics without interfering with the beneficent effect of estrogens on the coronary arteries in cockerels.