Thyroid hormone (TH) is essential for cardiovascular function, and women are disproportionately affected by TH disorders and experience worse outcomes following myocardial infarction (MI). However, the role of sex-specific TH regulation in post-MI cardiac recovery remains poorly understood. We investigated TH homeostasis and type 3 deiodinase (D3) activity, an enzyme that inactivates TH, in male and female C57BL/6 mice following MI. Using cardiomyocyte-specific D3-deficient (Dio3ΔHeart) mice, we investigated how impaired TH inactivation influences cardiac function and mitochondrial respiration. We also examined DIO3 messenger RNA expression, which encodes the D3 enzyme, in left ventricular (LV) tissue from human donors with nonfailing (NF) hearts or ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM). Four weeks post MI, wild-type female mice exhibited sustained cardiac D3 activity, which effectively limited 3,5,3'-triiodothyronine (T3) levels in the LV. In contrast, Dio3ΔHeart females, lacking cardiomyocyte D3, showed impaired systolic recovery, elevated LV thyroxine and T3 levels, and reduced fatty acid-supported mitochondrial respiration, effects not observed in Dio3ΔHeart males. Similarly, DIO3 expression was selectively upregulated in LV tissue from women with ICM, but not in men. These findings identify DIO3 as a key protective mechanism in females that limits T3-induced metabolic stress and preserves mitochondrial function after MI, revealing a sex-dependent pathway with therapeutic relevance for cardiac recovery.
Keywords: cardiac recovery; myocardial infarction; sex differences; thyroid hormone; type 3 deiodinase.
© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Endocrine Society.