In recent decades there has been an increasing recognition of the need to account for sex and gender in biology and medicine, in order to develop a more comprehensive understanding of biological phenomena and to address gaps in medical knowledge that have arisen due to a generally masculine bias in research. We have noted that as basic experimental biomedical researchers, we face unique challenges to the incorporation of sex and gender in our work, and that these have remained largely unarticulated, misunderstood, and unaddressed in the literature. Here, we describe some of the specific challenges to the incorporation of sex and gender considerations in research involving cell cultures and laboratory animals. In our view, the mainstreaming of sex and gender considerations in basic biomedical research depends on an approach that will allow scientists to address these issues in ways that do not undermine our ability to pursue our fundamental scientific interests. To that end, we suggest a number of strategies that allow basic experimental researchers to feasibly and meaningfully take sex and gender into account in their work.

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Reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is a rapid and high throughput gene expression quantification technology. In order to obtain accurate results, several key experimental design and standardization steps must be rigorously followed as previously described in the Minimum Information for Publication of Quantitative Real-Time PCR Experiments (MIQE) guidelines. This study investigates the effect of reference gene normalization and the impact of RNA degradation on gene expression of 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase in human placenta from pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia and gestational diabetes mellitus and their gestation-matched controls. The data presented here show how RNA quality and appropriate reference gene selection is not only important to obtain accurate and reproducible RT-qPCR data but how different and even opposite results can be reported if the key steps outlined in the MIQE guidelines are not followed. The procedures and associated results presented in this study provide the first practical application of the MIQE guidelines to placental analysis in normal and pathological pregnancies.

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