Stamceller: Analysera kön

The Challenge

Biological sex is commonly studied as a variable in research with humans, but analyzing sex is rare in animal research and rarer still in cell-based research (Beery et al., 2011). This deficiency can represent a lost opportunity to understand basic and developmental biology, and to refine cell-based therapies.

Method: Analyzing Sex

Sex should be analyzed at all levels, from chromosomes and cells to whole organisms. Taking sex into account has led to novel questions about stem cells. Analyzing sex involves:

  1. Designing research to use cells of both sexes in sufficient quantities to detect or rule out sex differences (not all sex differences will be significant).
  2. Reporting the sex of cells used in experiments.
  3. Recording, formatting, and analyzing data to allow for systematic review and meta-analysis. Reviews can identify gaps in knowledge (when, for example, experiments have involved cells of only one sex). Meta-analysis can increase statistical power and may allow sex analysis even in the absence of two-sex studies.

Gendered Innovations:

  1. Identifying Sex Differences in Stem Cell Characteristics. Research using animal models has shown that the sex of stem cells may influence therapeutically relevant cell traits, such as proliferation and differentiation rates.
  2. 2. Understanding Differences within and between XX and XY Stem Cells. Discoveries about interactions between genetics, hormonal environments, and epigenetics have improved the understanding of stem cell biology.
  3. 3. Improving Clinical Guidelines for Stem Cell Therapies. By formulating research questions about the importance of donor and recipient sex (along with other factors that interact with sex) in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, researchers have gathered data relevant to improving clinical guidelines for this stem cell therapy.