Reduced Plakoglobin Increases the Risk of Sodium Current Defects and Atrial Conduction Abnormalities in Response to Androgenic Anabolic Steroid Abuse

    February 2024 in “ The Journal of Physiology ”
    Laura C. Sommerfeld, Andrew P. Holmes, Ting Yu, Christopher O’Shea, Deirdre M. Kavanagh, Jeremy A. Pike, Tom Wright, Fahima Syeda, Areej Aljehani, Tania Kew, Victor Roth Cardoso, S. Nashitha Kabir, Claire Hepburn, Priyanka Rajeev Menon, Sophie Broadway‐Stringer, Molly O’Reilly, Anika Witten, Lisa Fortmueller, Susanne Lutz, Alexandra Kulle, Georgios V. Gkoutos, Davor Pavlović, Wiebke Arlt, Gareth G. Lavery, Richard P. Steeds, Katja Gehmlich, Monika Stoll, Paulus Kirchhof, Larissa Fabritz
    TLDR Reduced plakoglobin and steroid abuse increase the risk of heart rhythm issues.
    The study examines the effects of androgenic anabolic steroid (AAS) abuse, specifically 5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT), on atrial conduction abnormalities in mice with reduced plakoglobin, a protein linked to arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC). It finds that chronic DHT exposure in these mice leads to atrial electrical remodeling, including prolonged PR intervals and P wave durations, due to reduced sodium channel availability. This suggests that plakoglobin deficiency exacerbates the adverse cardiac effects of steroid abuse, increasing the risk of arrhythmias. The study highlights the potential cardiac risks of AAS abuse, especially in individuals with genetic predispositions like ARVC, and underscores the need for further research on desmosomal gene defects in steroid users with atrial arrhythmias.
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