In pursuit of scientific excellence: sex matters

In pursuit of scientific excellence: sex matters
by Virginia M. Miller
The comments of this article is from the perspective of biology, but may help us to understand existed sex/gender arguments from the perspective of public health.
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In the era of physiological genomics and individualized medicine, the presence of an XX or XY chromosomal complement is fundamental to the genome of an individual person, animal, tissue, or cell. Every cell has a sex.
Therefore, based on existing knowledge, it is inappropriate to assume that results from studies conducted on only one sex apply to the other (13). For some studies of neonates and embryos, cells derived from males and females are mixed in a single culture and should be reported as such. The scientific community needs to determine whether this technique is valid by providing sufficient data to control and confirm survival, differentiation, and function of cells of each sex. Similarly, cell-based therapies need to validate survival and function of the cell graft in the same- and opposite-sexed recipients.
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How then should the sex of experimental material be reported? Use of the terms "sex" and "gender" has evolved over the last decade. According to definitions proposed by the Institute of Medicine (23), "sex" is a biological construct dictated by the presence of sex chromosomes and in animals and humans the presence of functional reproductive organs. "Gender" is a cultural construct and refers to behaviors that might be directed by specific stimuli (visual, olfactory, etc.) or by psychosocial expectations that result from assigned or perceived sex. Gender, thus, can influence biological outcomes. In most studies conducted on isolated cells, tissues can be classified as male or female by the sex chromosomal complement and for experimental animals by the sex chromosomal complement and anatomical features. Similar information may be available for humans. However, humans may self-report their sex according to gender and some studies in animals can be designed to address influences of psychosocial (gender) constructs on physiological outcomes (12). The new editorial policy for all APS journals requires the reporting of sex for cells, tissues, and experimental animals and humans (i.e., male and female) or gender where appropriate. The investigator must decide based on the experimental design which terms are most appropriate for a given study.
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