Stroke. 2005;36:193-195
Published online before print December 29, 2004,
doi: 10.1161/01.STR.0000153064.41332.f6
(Stroke. 2005;36:193.)
© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.
Adult or Perinatal Brain Injury
Does Sex Matter?
Patricia D. Hurn, PhD;
Susan J. Vannucci, PhD
Henrik Hagberg, MD, PhD
From Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine (P.D.H.), Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, Ore; the Department of Pediatrics (S.J.V.), Columbia Presbyterian University, New York, NY; and the Perinatal Center (H.H.), Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Goteborg, Sweden.
Correspondence to Dr Patricia D. Hurn, Professor and Vice Chairman for Research, Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Oregon Health Sciences University, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Pk Rd, UHS-2, Portland OR 97239-3098. E-mail hurnp{at}ohsu.edu
Key Words: Advances in Stroke hypoxia-ischemia, brain ischemia poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase sex
 |
Introduction
|
|---|
Biological sex and sex-defining steroids are strikingly under-rated
as modulators of cerebral ischemic cell death. In adults, male
sex has been long identified as a risk factor for clinical stroke,
yet the biology behind this fact remains veiled. We know that
overall stroke incidence is lower in women than in men, across
widely varying ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
1 Newer glimpses
into this sexual dimorphism indicate that women continue to
sustain lower stroke rates until beyond the menopausal years,
suggesting that hormonal factors are not solely responsible.
For example, stroke rates in female subjects of the Northern
Manhattan Stroke Study did not exceed those of men until aged

85 years.
2 Importantly, data from sex-stratified preclinical
studies indicate that stroke sensitivity (the damage resulting
when an ischemic insult occurs) is also sexually dimorphic in
adults. It is less clear if ischemic injury in the developing
brain develops differently in males and females. However, provocative
new evidence from cells cultured directly from fetal or newborn
brain suggests that mechanisms of cell death are not identical
in cells that are genetically male (XY) versus female (XX).
This article evaluates linkages between sex, sex steroids, and
neuroprotection throughout life.
 |
Adult Brain Injury Is Sexually Dimorphic
|
|---|
The presence of a male "ischemia-sensitive" phenotype has been
suggested in a wide variety of animal studies. One of the most
impressive early studies included >2000 animals.
3 Yamori
et al showed that life expectancy was longer in female spontaneously
hypertensive stroke-prone rats, and the development of cerebral
hemorrhage and vascular lesions was attenuated relative to male
spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats.
3 Subsequently,
female rats and mice of numerous inbred and outbred strains
have been studied. These studies clearly demonstrate less tissue
damage for an equivalent insult after focal or global cerebral
ischemia in age-matched females versus male,
46 accompanied
by improved functional outcome.
7 Similarly, female animals sustain
less damage after concussive brain injury and, unlike males,
do not benefit from hypothermia as a therapy.
89 Complex
experimental stroke models have been accomplished in animals
with genetic stroke risk factors: insulin-dependent genetic
diabetes,
10 non-insulindependent diabetes,
11 and hypertension.
5 In each of these studies, males are more sensitive to cerebral
ischemia than are females.
Without doubt, sex steroids provide an infrastructure on which ischemic cell death is played out. The principal estrogen, 17ß estradiol, has been widely shown to reduce neuronal death in vivo and in vitro and to stabilize preischemic vascular performance. The list of mechanisms, proven or putative, by which estradiol provides protection is long.12 Accumulating data also suggest that progesterone protects brain from ischemic or traumatic injury, acting as an antiedema agent.1314 The effect of androgens in ischemic injury is largely unknown. Available data with testosterone suggest deleterious effects in the intact brain exposed to ischemia15 but protective actions in vitro.16
Sex-specific sensitivity to cerebral ischemia may also be because of differences in utilization of molecular cell death pathways by males and females. Data from genetically engineered mice support this hypothesis when both sexes are studied. Ischemic outcome in knockout mice can be overtly gender-dependent, even in strains where the gene of interest is not linked to reproduction or sexual development. Examples include the inducible17,18 and neuronal isoforms of nitric oxide synthase (NOS)19,20 and the DNA repair enzyme poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP-1).20 It is now well accepted that NO generated during ischemia leads to neuronal death in part from its rapid reaction with superoxide anion, leading to peroxynitrite formation and protein nitration.21,22 Key evidence that helped to establish the NO hypothesis arose from studies in male animals where genetic deletion or pharmacological neuronal NOS inhibition reduced ischemic damage. New observations now show that female nNOS knockout mice, or wild-type females treated with well-studied enzyme inhibitors, sustain paradoxicallyincreased damage after experimental stroke. Further, the paradoxical response in females is not explained by a protective action of estradiol.20 Another well established cell death mechanism involves PARP-1 activation after DNA damage emerging from excitotoxicity or ischemia.23 Data obtained from male PARP-1 knockout mice or from mixed sex neuronal cultures emphasize that halting PARP-1 activation improves cell recovery.2425 However, loss of PARP-1 activity in female knockouts, or in wild-type females treated with specific PARP inhibitors, hugely exacerbates ischemic damage (Figure 1).20 Although it is not clear how these cell death pathways diverge in the male and female, these data suggest that sex can alter the molecular context of brain injury.

View larger version (11K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]
|
Figure 1. Genetic deletion of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP-1) produces sex-dependent outcome after middle cerebral artery occlusion. Damage was determined by standard histology in male and female PARP-1 knockout mice and wild-type littermates. Data source, reference.20
|
|
 |
Sex and Perinatal Injury
|
|---|
The role of sex in determining an "ischemia-sensitive" phenotype
in the pediatric population is far less clear. A study for risk
factors for stroke among children with sickle cell disease found
no effect of sex on stroke prevalence,
26 nor was there an effect
of gender on mortality after pediatric traumatic brain injury.
27 However, after pediatric traumatic brain injury, girls demonstrate
a significantly better outcome in tests of learning and memory.
2829
In experimental animal models, reduced sensitivity to ischemic injury in females has been attributed to circulating estradiol, a factor not relevant to prepubertal animals. Therefore, it has been customary in studies of neonatal ischemic brain injury to evaluate hypotheses without sex stratification. Limited data in sex-specific protocols are available. Assessment of long-term neuropathologic outcome after unilateral cerebral hypoxia-ischemia (HI) in the immature rat (postnatal day, P7) demonstrated that the severity of damage was linearly linked to the duration of HI.3032 No difference in outcome was observed between male and female pups. More recently, decreased vulnerability to HI has been reported in females relative to their male littermates, and the sexual dimorphism emerges between P21 and P60.33 This timeframe is likely coincident with the onset of sexual maturation and sex steroid production.
However, sexual dimorphism in central nervous system development is apparent during both embryonic and postnatal periods preceding puberty. Differences in gene expression are evident in males versus females by midgestation in the rodent,34 and surges of sex steroids during late embryonic and early postnatal life program the brain.35 Furthermore, even if the extent of brain damage does not differ between male and female postnatal rodents, emerging evidence suggests differences in the mechanisms leading to cell death. For example, post-HI hypothermia provides long-term protection in neonatal rats in a sex-specific manner.36 Reduction of lesion size is quite limited in males, without significant functional improvement, whereas hypothermia provides robust protection in female rats with significant reduction in sensory-motor deficits (total functional rank 100±34 in females versus 150±35 in males). A recent study demonstrates that a similar gender-dependent response to PARP deletion seen in the adult is also present in the neonate, in that postnatal female and male mice subjected to HI responded differently to PARP-1 gene deficiency.37 Male PARP-1 knockouts enjoyed a
50% reduction in histological damage, whereas injury in postnatal females was unaffected by the gene dose of PARP-1. PARP-1 activation, as measured by poly-ADP ribose accumulation, was not different between the sexes (Figure 2). However, PARP-1 uses NAD+ to ribosylate DNA, a scarce commodity during ischemia and energy failure. NAD+ reduction was more pronounced in male versus female pups, suggesting differences at the mitochondrial level.

View larger version (12K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]
|
Figure 2. Genetic deletion of PARP-1 produces sex dependent outcome following hypoxia-ischemia in postnatal mice. Total injury score was determined by standard cresyl violet histology (10 sections per animal) in 7 day old male and female PARP-1 knockout mice and wild-type littermates.37
|
|
 |
"Sex-ed" Cells and In vitro Ischemic Sensitivity
|
|---|
Further support that cell death mechanisms can be sex-specific
arises from studies that use cell cultures in which background
sex steroid exposure is removed. This approach allows an evaluation
of the hypothesis that cellular response to a molecular insult
diverge, depending on the genetic sex of the cell (XX or XY).
Female dopaminergic neurons (embryonic day 14 cultures, E14)
tolerate exposure to toxic dopamine concentrations and survive
2-fold relative to male cells.
38 Similarly, female neurons (E19)
cultured from cortical plate or ventricular zone have greater
longevity than do male cells and differentially express higher
levels of phosphorylated kinases, such as Akt.
39 Sensitivity
to glutamate, peroxynitrite (ONOO), and staurosporine in neuronal
culture (E17) has recently been reported to be sex specific,
with male neurons being more susceptible to glutamate and ONOO
than females. In contrast, oxidants, such as H
2O
2, damage both
sexes equally.
40 Sexually dimorphic responses also occur in
astrocyte cultures (rat P3) where death after oxygen-glucose
deprivation is greater in male cells than in female cells.
41
 |
Conclusions
|
|---|
These studies represent a very early understanding of the role
of biological sex and sex-defining steroids on ischemic pathobiology
in the adult or immature brain. Emerging evidence suggests that
some cell death pathways are sex specific; the breadth of these
observations and underlying mechanisms remains to be assessed.
The use of both sexes in preclinical animal experiments and
in cell cultures stratified by sex will continue to provide
useful information. If so, then gender-based therapeutic interventions
may well hold promise for greater neuroprotection in adult and
perinatal brain injury.
 |
Acknowledgments
|
|---|
This work was supported by US Public Health Service National
Institutes of Health grants NS33668, NR03521, NS20020, NS28208,
and PO1 HD30704 and Swedish Medical Research Council 09455.
Received November 25, 2004;
accepted December 1, 2004.
 |
References
|
|---|
- Sudlow CL, Warlow CP. Comparable studies of the incidence of stroke and its pathological types: results from an international collaboration. International Stroke Incidence Collaboration. Stroke. 1997; 28: 491499.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Sacco RL, Boden-Albala B, Gan R, Kargman DE, Paik M, Shea S, Hauser WA. Stroke incidence among white, black and Hispanic residents of an urban community. Am J Epidemiol. 1998; 147: 259268.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Yamori Y, Horie R, Handa H, Sato M, Fukase M. Pathogenetic similarity of strokes in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats and humans. Stroke. 1976; 7: 4653.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Hall ED, Pazara KE, Linseman KL. Sex differences in postischemic neuronal necrosis in gerbils. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 1991; 11: 292298.[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Alkayed NJ, Harukuni I, Kimes AS, London ED, Traystman RJ, Hurn PD. Gender-linked brain injury in experimental stroke. Stroke. 1998; 29: 159166.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Carswell HV, Anderson NH, Clark JS, Graham D, Jeffs B, Dominiczak AF, Macrae IM. Genetic and gender influences on sensitivity to focal cerebral ischemia in the stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rat. Hypertension. 1999; 33: 681685.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Li X, Blizzard KK, Zeng Z, DeVries AC, Hurn PD, McCullough LD. Chronic behavioral testing after focal ischemia in the mouse: functional recovery and the effects of gender. Exp Neurol. 2004; 187: 94104.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Bramlett HM, Dietrich WD. Neuropathological protection after traumatic brain injury in intact female rats versus males or ovariectomized females. J Neurotrauma. 2001; 18: 891900.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Suzuki T, Bramlett HM, Ruenes G, Dietrich WD. The effects of early post-traumatic hypothermia in female and ovariectomized rats. J Neurotrauma. 2004; 21: 842853.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Toung TK, Hurn PD, Traystman RJ, Sieber FE. Estrogen decreases infarct size after temporary focal ischemia in a genetic model of type 1 diabetes mellitus. Stroke. 2000; 31: 27012706.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Vannucci SJ, Willing LB, Goto S, Alkayed NJ, Brucklacher RM, Wood TL, Towfighi J, Hurn PD, Simpson IA. Experimental stroke in the female diabetic, db/db, mouse. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2001; 21: 5260.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Hurn PD, Brass LM. Estrogen: a balanced analysis. Stroke. 2003; 34: 338341.[Free Full Text]
- Murphy SJ, Littleton-Kearney MT, Hurn PD. Progesterone administration during reperfusion, but not pre-ischemia alone, reduces injury in ovariectomized rats. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2002; 22: 11811188.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Stein DG, Hoffman SW. Estrogen and progesterone as neuroprotective agents in the treatment of acute brain injuries. Ped Rehab. 2003; 6: 1322.
- Hawk T, Zhang YQ, Rajakumar G, Day AL, Simpkins JW. Testosterone increases and estradiol decreases middle cerebral artery occlusion lesion size in male rats. Brain Res. 1998; 796: 296298.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Hammond J, Le Q, Goodyer C, Gelfand M, Trifiro M, LeBlanc A. Testosterone-mediated neuroprotection through the androgen receptor in human primary neurons. J Neurochem. 2001; 77: 13191326.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Loihl AK, Asensio V, Campbell IL, Murphy S. Expression of nitric oxide synthase (NOS)-2 following permanent focal ischemia and the role of nitric oxide in infarct generation in male, female and NOS-2 gene-deficient mice. Brain Research. 1999; 830: 155164.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Park EM, Cho S, Frys KA, Racchumi G, Anrather J, Zhou P, Iadecola C. Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase Contributes To Gender Differences In Ischemic Brain Injury. Washington, DC: Society for Neuroscience; 2004. Program 259.
- Sampei K, Mandir AS, Asano Y, Wong PC, Traystman RJ, Dawson VL, Dawson TM, Hurn PD. Stroke outcome in double-mutant antioxidant transgenic mice. Stroke. 2000; 31: 26852691.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- McCullough LD, Blizzard KK, Zeng Z, Hurn PD. Ischemic NO and PARP activation in brain: male toxicity, female protection. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2005; In press.
- Ischiropoulos H, Beckman JS. Oxidative stress and nitration in neurodegeneration: cause, effect or association? J Clin Invest. 2003; 111: 163169.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Chan PH. Reactive oxygen radicals in signaling and damage in the ischemic brain. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2001; 21: 214.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Hong SJ, Dawson TM, Dawson VL. Nuclear and mitochondrial conversations in cell death: PARP-1 and AIF signaling. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2004; 25: 259264.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Eliasson MJ, Sampei K, Mandir AS, Hurn PD, Traystman RJ, Bao J, Pieper A, Wang ZQ, Dawson TM, Snyder SH, Dawson VL. Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase gene disruption renders mice resistant to cerebral ischemia. Nature Med. 1997; 3: 10891095.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Endres M, Wang ZQ, Namura S, Waeber C, Moskowitz MA. Ischemic brain injury is mediated by the activation of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 1997; 17: 11431151[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Driscoll MC, Hurlet A, Styles L, McKie V, Files B, Olivieri N, Pegelow C, Berman B, Drachtman R, Patel, K, Brambilla D. Stroke risk in siblings with sickle cell anemia. Blood. 2003; 101: 24012404.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Morrison WE, Arbelaez JJ, Fackler JC, DeMaio A, Paidas CN. Gender and age effects on outcome after pediatric traumatic brain injury. Ped Crit Care Med. 2004; 5: 145151.
- Donders J, Hoffman NM. Gender differences in learning and memory after pediatric traumatic brain injury. Neuropsychology. 2002; 16: 491499.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Donders J, Woodward HR. Gender as a moderator of memory after traumatic brain injury in children. J Head Trauma Rehabil. 2003; 18: 106115.[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Rice JE, Vannucci RC, Brierley JB. The influence of immaturity on hypoxic-ischemic brain damage in the rat. Ann Neurol. 1981; 9: 131141.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Vannucci RC, Rossini A, Towfighi J, Vannucci SJ. Measuring the accentuation of the brain damage that arises from perinatal cerebral hypoxia-ischemia. Biol Neonate. 1997; 72: 187191.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Vannucci SJ, Seaman LB, Vannucci RC. Effects of hypoxia-ischemia on GLUT1 and GLUT3 glucose transporters in immature brain. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 1996; 16: 7781.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Zhu C, Wang X, Xu F, Bahr BA, Shibata M, Uchiyama Y, Hagberg H, Blomgren K. The influence of age on apoptotic and other mechanisms of cell death after cerebral hypoxia-ischemia. Cell Death Differ. In press.
- Dewing P, Shi T, Horvath S, Vilain E. Sexually dimorphic gene expression in mouse brain precedes gonadal differentiation. Brain Res Mol Brain Res. 2003; 118: 8290.[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Becu-Villalobos D, Gonzalez Iglesias A, Diaz-Torga G, Hockl P, Libertun C. Brain sexual differentiation and gonadotropins secretion in the rat. Cell Mol Neurobiol. 1997; 17: 699715.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Bona E, Hagberg H, Loberg EM, Bagenholm R, Thoresen M. Protective effects of moderate hypothermia after neonatal hypoxia-ischemia: short- and long-term outcome. Pediatr Res. 1998; 43: 738745.[Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Hagberg H, Wilson MA, Matsushita H, Zhu C, Lange M, Gustavsson M, Poitras MF, Dawson TM, Dawson VL, Northington F, Johnston MV. PARP-1 gene disruption in mice preferentially protects males from perinatal brain injury. J Neurochem. 2004; 90: 10681075.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Lieb K, Andrae J, Reisert I, Pilgrim C. Neurotoxicity of dopamine and protective effects of the NMDA receptor antagonist AP-5 differ between male and female dopaminergic neurons. Exp Neurol. 1995; 134: 222229.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Zhang L, Li PP, Feng X, Barker JL, Smith SV, Rubinow DR. Sex-related differences in neuronal cell survival and signaling in rats. Neurosci Lett. 2003; 337: 6568.[CrossRef][Medline]
[Order article via Infotrieve]
- Du L, Bayir H, Lai Y, Zhang X, Kochanek PM, Watkins SC, Graham SH, Clark RS. Innate gender-based proclivity in response to cytotoxicity and programmed cell death pathway. J Biol Chem. 2004; 279: 3856338570.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Liu M, Hurn PD, Alkayed NJ. Sex-Specific Modulation of astrocyte cell death by inflammatory cytokines. In: Kriegelstein J, ed. Pharmacology of Cerebral Ischemia. Stuttgart, Germany: Medpharm Scientific Publishers. In press.
This article has been cited by other articles:

|
 |

|
 |
 
S. Renolleau, S. Fau, and C. Charriaut-Marlangue
Gender-Related Differences in Apoptotic Pathways After Neonatal Cerebral Ischemia
Neuroscientist,
February 1, 2008;
14(1):
46 - 52.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
I. S. Balan, G. Fiskum, J. Hazelton, C. Cotto-Cumba, and R. E. Rosenthal
Oximetry-Guided Reoxygenation Improves Neurological Outcome After Experimental Cardiac Arrest
Stroke,
December 1, 2006;
37(12):
3008 - 3013.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|