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Updated: Jul 1, 2025

Skeletal Muscle Gender Dimorphism from Proteomics
Published on: December 14, 2011
Sex differences on constitutive long non-coding RNA expression: Modulatory effect of estradiol and testosterone in
Tresa López-Royo1, Laura Moreno-Martínez1, Leticia Moreno-García1
1Department of Anatomy, Embryology and Animal Genetics, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Agroalimentary Institute of Aragon (IA2), Institute of Health Research of Aragon (IIS), University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.
Introduction:
Despite the growing awareness of sexual dimorphism between males and females under pathological and physiological conditions, sex bias in biomedical research in animal models and patients is still present nowadays. The main objective of this work was to investigate sex differences in constitutive long non-coding RNA expression in spinal cord and skeletal muscle from wild-type mice.
Materials And Methods:
To assess the influence of gender on long non-coding RNAs, we extracted RNA from tissues of male and female mice and analyzed the expression on nine long non-coding RNAs, selected for being among the most commonly studied or exerting an important role in muscle, at 50, 60, and 120 days of age.
Results And Discussion:
We observed age- and tissue-dependent significant sex differences, being more prominent in skeletal muscle. We also studied the effect of sex steroid hormones on long non-coding RNA expression in vitro, noticing a modulation of long non-coding RNA levels upon estradiol and dihydrotestosterone treatment in muscle.
Conclusions:
Taken together, results obtained evidenced sex differences on constitutive long non-coding RNA expression and suggested an influence of steroid hormones complementary to other possible factors. These findings emphasize the importance of including both sexes in experimental design to minimize any potential sex bias.
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