Human Umbilical Cord: Information Mine in Sex-Specific Medicine

Abstract

Biological differences between sexes should be considered in all stages of research, as sexual dimorphism starts in utero leading to sex-specific fetal programming. In numerous biomedical fields, there is still a lack of stratification by sex despite primary cultured cells retaining memory of the sex and of the donor. The sex of donors in biological research must be known because variations in cells and cellular components can be used as endpoints, biomarkers and/or targets of pharmacological studies. This selective review focuses on the current findings regarding sex differences observed in the umbilical cord, a widely used source of research samples, both in the blood and in the circulating cells, as well as in the different cellular models obtainable from it. Moreover, an overview on sex differences in fetal programming is reported. As it emerges that the sex variable is still often forgotten in experimental models, we suggest that it should be mandatory to adopt sex-oriented research, because only awareness of these issues can lead to innovative research.

Sex‐Specific Response to Combinations of Shear Stress and Substrate Stiffness by Endothelial Cells In Vitro

“…In static culture, endothelial cells have been shown to display sexual dimorphism for a range of functions including proliferation, vasoregulation, migration, and wound healing, tube formation and vascular endothelial growth factor stimulation, response to stressors of hyperoxia and serum starvation, secreted factors, and stimulation by sex hormones. [41,42,44,45,46,[48][49][50][72][73][74][75][76][77] Our main effect results for cell spreading agree with reports on the characteristics of male and female rat aortic and microvascular endothelial cells that found female endothelial cells spread more than male endothelial cells. [46] It is important to note that this has immediate implications in terms of barrier function and wound healing ability, i.e., being able to cover a given area.…”

Association between maternal antibiotic exposure during pregnancy and childhood obesity in the Japan Environment and Children's Study

“…We also reported that the association between the umbilical serum level of mercury and DNA methylation of umbilical cord tissue was different between both sexes 45 . Male and female offspring show several differences in their blood and tissues 46 . Recently, it was reported that the effects of gut microbiota on metabolism or gene expression were different between males and females in mouse models 47–49 .…”

The Person’s Care Requires a Sex and Gender Approach

“…Both the mother and the father contribute to the neonates’ genetic makeup; the quality of the fetal environment participates in the trajectory of fetus development [ 156 , 157 , 158 ]. Numerous maternal risk factors are identified, but paternal factors receive less attention [ 159 ].…”