Search results for "sex characteristics"
showing 10 items of 265 documents
Sex Differences in the Neuroadaptations of Reward-related Circuits in Response to Subchronic Variable Stress
2018
Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with major depressive disorder. However, fewer studies in rodent models of depression have used female animals, leading to a relative lack of understanding of the female brain’s response to stress, especially at a neural circuit level. In this study, we utilized a 6-day subchronic variable stress (SCVS) mouse model and measured novelty suppressed feeding as behavioral criteria to evaluate susceptibility to SCVS in male and female mice. First, we showed that SCVS induced a decrease in latency to eat (susceptible phenotype) in female mice, but not in males (resilient phenotype). After determining behavioral phenotypes, we investigated the firing activ…
Sex Differences in Age-Associated Type 2 Diabetes in Rats—Role of Estrogens and Oxidative Stress
2019
Females live longer than males, and the estrogens are one of the reasons for this difference. We reported some years ago that estrogens are able to protect rats against oxidative stress, by inducing antioxidant genes. Type 2 diabetes is an age-associated disease in which oxidative stress is involved, and moreover, some studies show that the prevalence is higher in men than in women, and therefore there are sex-associated differences. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the role of estrogens in protecting against oxidative stress in type 2 diabetic males and females. For this purpose, we used Goto-Kakizaki rats, which develop type 2 diabetes with age. We found that female diabetic ra…
Sexually Dimorphic Behavioral Profile in a Transgenic Model Enabling Targeted Recombination in Active Neurons in Response to Ketamine and (2R,6R)-Hyd…
2020
Background: Rapid-acting antidepressants ketamine and (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine ((2R,6R)-HNK) have overcome some of the major limitations of classical antidepressants. However, little is known about sex-specific differences in the behavioral and molecular effects of ketamine and (2R,6R)-HNK in rodents. Methods: We treated mice with an intraperitoneal injection of either saline, ketamine (30 mg kg&minus
Prevalence of anatomic variations of the atlas vertebra
2018
Abstract BACKGROUND CONTEXT The retrotransverse foramen (RTF), arcuate foramen (AF), unclosed transverse foramen (UTF) and posterior atlas arch defects (PAAD) are anatomic variations of the atlas vertebra that surgeons must be aware of before spine surgery is performed. PURPOSE To analyze the prevalence of the AF, RTF, UTF, and PAAD. STUDY DESIGN Ex-vivo anatomical study. PATIENT SAMPLE Two hundred eighteen atlas vertebrae obtained from 100 Caucasian subjects and 118 sub-Saharan African subjects (48 Sotho subjects, 35 Xhosa subjects and 35 Zulu subjects). METHODS We studied 218 atlas vertebrae from skeletons of the Raymond A. Dart Collection in order to analyze the prevalence of AF, RTF, UT…
Sub-chronic variable stress induces sex-specific effects on glutamatergic synapses in the nucleus accumbens
2017
Men and women manifest different symptoms of depression and under current diagnostic criteria, depression is twice as prevalent in woman. However, little is known of the mechanisms contributing to these important sex differences. Sub-chronic variable stress (SCVS), a rodent model of depression, induces depression-like behaviors in female mice only, modeling clinical evidence of higher susceptibility to mood disorders in women. Accumulating evidence indicates that altered neuroplasticity of excitatory synapses in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a key pathophysiological feature of susceptibility to social stress in males. Here we investigated the effects of SCVS on pre- and post-synaptic prote…
Inbreeding removes sex differences in lifespan in a population of Drosophila melanogaster
2016
Sex differences in ageing rates and lifespan are common in nature, and an enduring puzzle for evolutionary biology. One possibility is that sex-specific mortality rates may result from recessive deleterious alleles in ‘unguarded’ heterogametic X or Z sex chromosomes (the unguarded X hypothesis). Empirical evidence for this is, however, limited. Here, we test a fundamental prediction of the unguarded X hypothesis in Drosophila melanogaster, namely that inbreeding shortens lifespan more in females (the homogametic sex in Drosophila) than in males. To test for additional sex-specific social effects, we studied the lifespan of males and females kept in isolation, in related same-sex groups, and…
Gut microbiota steroid sexual dimorphism and its impact on gonadal steroids: influences of obesity and menopausal status
2020
[Background]: Gonadal steroid hormones have been suggested as the underlying mechanism responsible for the sexual dimorphism observed in metabolic diseases. Animal studies have also evidenced a causal role of the gut microbiome and metabolic health. However, the role of sexual dimorphism in the gut microbiota and the potential role of the microbiome in influencing sex steroid hormones and shaping sexually dimorphic susceptibility to disease have been largely overlooked. Although there is some evidence of sex-specific differences in the gut microbiota diversity, composition, and functionality, the results are inconsistent. Importantly, most of these studies have not taken into account the go…
Gender differences in the effects of haloperidol on avoidance conditioning in mice
1995
Abstract Gender differences in the effects of haloperidol (0.07S mg/kg per day for 5 days) on avoidance conditioning were evaluated. We also studied performance of the subjects free of the drug and the acute effects of haloperidol in animals trained without drug 48 h after the last haloperidol administration. Latencies of escape and avoidance responses, number of nonresponses, escapes, avoidances, crossings during the adaptation period, crossings during intertrial intervals, and total crossings per minute were analyzed. This dosage impaired conditioning of the male animals but did not attain the same effects on females. Haloperidol did not deteriorate performance of the task when it had bee…
Family hystory, diabetes and extension of coronary atherosclerosis are strong predictors of adverse events after PTCA: a one year follow-up study
2005
BACKGROUND AND AIM: In this study we addressed some open questions in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). First, we analysed which of the traditional risk factors was associated with the spreading of coronary stenosis and second, we aimed to identify if any variable was predictive of post-percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) clinical events. METHODS AND RESULTS: We collected a consecutive series of patients with CAD (n=301) and in the subgroup of patients undergoing PTCA (n=135) we performed a prospective one-year follow-up study recording cardiovascular morbidity and total mortality. According to the extension of coronary atherosclerosis, we found a significant re…
Rectal pH in children
1989
In an attempt to establish normal values for rectal pH in children, we have measured pH in 100 paediatric patients. Measurement of rectal pH was performed in 25 infants and 75 children (27 girls and 73 boys) using a monocrystalline antimony electrode. Rectal pH was 9.6 +/- 0.9 (mean +/- SD, range 7.2 to 12.1) and was independent of sex, age and nutrition. This wide range of rectal pH values offers a possible explanation for the widely scattered bioavailability of drugs administered by the rectal route. Mean rectal pH was considerably higher than that reported for adults; this unexpected alkalinity should be taken into account, when drug formulations are considered for rectal administration …