Still searching for the female norm: a GLUT of knowledge remains to be revealed

Abstract

For something that takes place so regularly -between every 21 and 35 days -and affects up to one half of the human population, why is it that we still have only limited knowledge about other associated internal metabolic fluctuations that are taking place throughout this dynamic time known as the ovarian cycle? Is it simply down to the historical avoidance of undertaking research in female subjects?Or is it due to less appreciation of the inter-relationships between seemingly more distant physiological structures and systems that could also be involved? In this issue of Experimental Physiology, by investigating female mouse small intestine gut tissues ex vivo that were taken during clearly identified stages of the murine ovarian cycle, Overduin et al. (2023) have tackled this lack of information head on. Their efforts were rewarded in isolating subtle changes that potentially will be even more revealing when teamed with other research findings. The authors applied a refined Ussing chamber methodology to address their research questions directly, and in doing so found fluctuations in active sodium glucose-cotransporter 1 (SGLT1)-mediated glucose transport in the gut, with reductions in glucose uptake during the transition towards ovulatory status, in ad libitum-fed mice. At first glance, this may not seem particularly startling, but it allows more appropriate interpretation of existing research findings about glucose control to be considered in females.These alterations in measured induced D-glucose uptake contribute some mechanistic support towards developing biological explanations for the long-held observations in some female mammals of lower food intake (including humans: Virgil et al., 2022) and increased energyThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.