Short-term ethinylestradiol treatment suppresses inferior caval vein thrombosis in obese mice

Obesity and oral estrogens are independent risk factors for venous thrombosis, and their combined effect is stronger than the sum of the isolated factors. It was the objective of this study to investigate the interaction between obesity and estrogens at the level of venous thrombotic tendency, coagulation and inflammation in a mouse model. Female C57Bl/6J mice were fed a standard fat diet (SFD) or a high fat diet (HFD) to induce nutritional obesity. After 14 weeks, while maintaining their diet, mice were orally treated eight days with 1 μg ethinylestradiol or vehicle (n=25 per group), and subsequently subjected to an inferior caval vein (ICV) thrombosis model. The ICV thrombosis model resulted in an increased thrombus weight in vehicle-treated HFD mice (3.0 ± 0.7 mg) compared to vehicle-treated SFD mice (1.4 ± 0.4 mg; p=0.064). Surprisingly, estrogens reduced thrombus weight, which was significant for the HFD group (0.8 ± 0.5 mg; p=0.013). As compared to SFD feeding, HFD feeding significantly increased plasma levels of coagulation factor VIII, combined factor II/VII/X (p