The secret behind women’s heart disease

A recent American study revealed a gene that may help explain the biological differences between women and men in the development of heart disease, pointing to a possible role for a gene known as MYH9 in the formation of a type of arterial plaque that appears more in women than in men.

The study was conducted by researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and was published in the journal Circulation Research on April 15, 2026, under the title: “Female-Biased VSMC GRNs Predict MYH9 as Regulator of Fibrous Plaque Phenotype,” which investigated the genetic factors that may explain the difference in patterns of coronary artery disease between the sexes.

The researchers analyzed gene activity in vascular smooth muscle cells, which are the cells responsible for maintaining the structure of blood vessels and involved in the formation of arterial plaques. The study included more than 150 human donors, including 119 men and 32 women, along with additional data from population-based studies in the Netherlands and Sweden that included arterial plaque samples.

The results showed that the MYH9 gene was more active in women, and was associated with plaques containing a greater number of smooth muscle cells and a lower percentage of fat, which are characteristics that characterize fibrous plaques, which are more common in women, especially before the age of fifty.

The researchers believe that this gene may affect the response of vascular cells to mechanical stress and biological signals, including hormones, which may help explain why the development of heart disease differs between women and men.

The study indicates that understanding these genetic differences may contribute in the future to developing more accurate methods for assessing the risk of heart disease, within a personalized medicine approach that depends on the biological characteristics of each individual.

Although the results do not immediately change current medical practices, they represent an important step toward understanding why heart disease differs between the sexes, and may open the door to developing treatments that target specific biological pathways, especially in women.