Cigarette smoking affects the differences between male and female phenotypes

Area of Science:

• Sex-gender medicine
• Biomarker discovery
• Personalized medicine

Background:

• Sex-gender medicine investigates health variations between males and females.
• This study examines male and female phenotypes using demographic, biochemical, and hematological data.
• It evaluates smoking's influence on phenotypes and body weight's role in sex-gender differences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the existence of male and female phenotypes in healthy adults.
• To investigate the impact of smoking on these phenotypes.
• To assess the role of body weight in sex-gender differences.

Main Methods:

• Enrolled 85 healthy men and 85 women, matched for age.
• Measured 31 hematochemical parameters.
• Analyzed data before and after body weight normalization using two-way ANOVA and principal component analysis (PCA).

Main Results:

• Non-smoking cohorts showed distinct male and female phenotypes via PCA.
• Body weight normalization altered data but maintained phenotype distinction.
• Smoking abolished sex-gender phenotypes, evidenced by PCA.

Conclusions:

• Male and female phenotypes are evident in non-smokers, irrespective of quantitation.
• Smoking leads to a single, unified phenotype in both sexes.
• Smoking and sex-gender should be treated as independent variables in clinical research.