Do microglia play a role in sex differences in TBI?

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Henry W. Caplan ; Charles S. Cox and Supinder S. Bedi
• 刊名：Journal of Neuroscience Research
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January/February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：95
• 期：1-2
• 页码：509-517
• 全文大小：103K
• ISSN：1097-4547

文摘

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality for both males and females and is, thus, a major focus of current study. Although the overall death rate of TBI for males is roughly three times higher than that for females, males have been disproportionately represented in clinical and preclinical studies. Gender differences are known to exist in many neurologic disorders, such as multiple sclerosis and stroke, and differences appear to exist in TBI. Furthermore, it is known that microglia have sexually dimorphic roles in CNS development and other neurologic conditions; however, most animal studies of microglia and TBI have focused on male subjects. Microglia are a current target of many preclinical and clinical therapeutic trials for TBI. Understanding the relationship among sex, sex hormones, and microglia is critical to truly understanding the pathophysiology of TBI. However, the evidence for sex differences in TBI centers mainly on sex hormones, and evidenced-based conclusions are often contradictory. In an attempt to review the current literature, it is apparent that sex differences likely exist, but the contradictory nature and magnitude of such differences in the existing literature does not allow definite conclusions to be drawn, except that more investigation of this issue is necessary.