There is a
major problem in biological research, especially in neuroscience and
psychology, with a lack of representation of both sexes in experiments.
Countless tests are published using data solely from male model organisms,
meaning that whatever conclusions are drawn from the results about the disease
or phenotype or genes at hand may only be applicable to male brains, yet these
conclusions are made to be all-encompassing, regardless of sex. However, as
seen in both papers this week, this is not the case as even simple modulations
to the brain such as exposure to cocaine can have drastically different results
for male and female rats. Namely, Holly et al.’s findings – which I personally
found more compelling in their simplicity – demonstrated that female rats have
longer “binge” periods when given the option of self-administration of cocaine
and have greater extracellular density of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens,
especially when stressed. This experiment offers multiple lanes of further
research, including differential stress behaviors between males and females
when exposed to other pharmacological manipulations (perhaps ketamine to
investigate schizophrenic phenotypes), the possibly protecting effects of
testosterone or other hormones more expressed in males (and vice versa for
estradiol), or perhaps manipulation of the levels of the opposite hormone in
the opposite sex and testing said modulations. These modulations can also be
used to study the effects of cocaine on BDNF expression as found in the
Vassoler et al paper. As they found a greater expression of BDNF in cocaine-exposed
male rats, perhaps the parallels between BDNF, testosterone, estradiol, and
dopamine expression in response to cocaine exposure may be a valid course of
action for study, specifically if one has protecting or enhancing effects on
another, and if cessation of expression of one induces differential behavioral
and phenotypic results.
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