WOMEN miss out on optimum medical treatment because most preclinical drug research is done in male animals. So suggests a new study that reveals many previously unknown differences between male and female mice.
Over three-quarters of drug evaluation studies use only male animals because of concerns that female hormone cycles will affect results. The common assumption is that what works for males will work for females too.
However, Natasha Karp at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK, and her team cast doubt on this. Comparing 234 physical traits in lab mice, they found sex differences for 57 per cent of quantifiable traits – like cholesterol levels and bone mass – and for 10 per cent of qualitative ones, like head shape (Nature Communications, doi.org/b824).
Karp says these nuances mean that drugs optimised for male animals may be less effective in females, while drugs that work better in females may never reach clinical trials.
This article appeared in print under the headline “Sex bias in drugs”