TY - JOUR
T1 - Sex in basic research
T2 - Concepts in the cardiovascular field
AU - Ventura-Clapier, Renée
AU - Dworatzek, Elke
AU - Seeland, Ute
AU - Kararigas, Georgios
AU - Arnal, Jean Francois
AU - Brunelleschi, Sandra
AU - Carpenter, Thomas C.
AU - Erdmann, Jeanette
AU - Franconi, Flavia
AU - Giannetta, Elisa
AU - Glezerman, Marek
AU - Hofmann, Susanna M.
AU - Junien, Claudine
AU - Katai, Miyuki
AU - Kublickiene, Karolina
AU - König, Inke R.
AU - Majdic, Gregor
AU - Malorni, Walter
AU - Mieth, Christin
AU - Miller, Virginia M.
AU - Reynolds, Rebecca M.
AU - Shimokawa, Hiroaki
AU - Tannenbaum, Cara
AU - D’Ursi, Anna Maria
AU - Regitz-Zagrosek, Vera
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author 2017. Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/6
Y1 - 2017/6
N2 - Women and men, female and male animals and cells are biologically different, and acknowledgement of this fact is critical to advancing medicine. However, incorporating concepts of sex-specific analysis in basic research is largely neglected, introducing bias into translational findings, clinical concepts and drug development. Research funding agencies recently approached these issues but implementation of policy changes in the scientific community is still limited, probably due to deficits in concepts, knowledge and proper methodology. This expert review is based on the EUGenMed project (www.eugenmed.eu) developing a roadmap for implementing sex and gender in biomedical and health research. For sake of clarity and conciseness, examples are mainly taken from the cardiovascular field that may serve as a paradigm for others, since a significant amount of knowledge how sex and oestrogen determine the manifestation of many cardiovascular diseases (CVD) has been accumulated. As main concepts for implementation of sex in basic research, the study of primary cell and animals of both sexes, the study of the influence of genetic vs. hormonal factors and the analysis of sex chromosomes and sex specific statistics in genome wide association studies (GWAS) are discussed. The review also discusses methodological issues, and analyses strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in implementing sex-sensitive aspects into basic research.
AB - Women and men, female and male animals and cells are biologically different, and acknowledgement of this fact is critical to advancing medicine. However, incorporating concepts of sex-specific analysis in basic research is largely neglected, introducing bias into translational findings, clinical concepts and drug development. Research funding agencies recently approached these issues but implementation of policy changes in the scientific community is still limited, probably due to deficits in concepts, knowledge and proper methodology. This expert review is based on the EUGenMed project (www.eugenmed.eu) developing a roadmap for implementing sex and gender in biomedical and health research. For sake of clarity and conciseness, examples are mainly taken from the cardiovascular field that may serve as a paradigm for others, since a significant amount of knowledge how sex and oestrogen determine the manifestation of many cardiovascular diseases (CVD) has been accumulated. As main concepts for implementation of sex in basic research, the study of primary cell and animals of both sexes, the study of the influence of genetic vs. hormonal factors and the analysis of sex chromosomes and sex specific statistics in genome wide association studies (GWAS) are discussed. The review also discusses methodological issues, and analyses strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in implementing sex-sensitive aspects into basic research.
KW - Animal models
KW - Basic research
KW - Cardiac cell models
KW - Chromosomes
KW - Hormones
KW - Sex
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U2 - 10.1093/cvr/cvx066
DO - 10.1093/cvr/cvx066
M3 - Review article
C2 - 28472454
AN - SCOPUS:85027309513
SN - 0008-6363
VL - 113
SP - 711
EP - 724
JO - Cardiovascular research
JF - Cardiovascular research
IS - 7
ER -