University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Pathology, Division of Medical Biology, PO Box 30001, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands.
Proc Am Thorac Soc. 2009 Dec;6(8):724-7. doi: 10.1513/pats.200906-054DP.
The incidence of asthma has a strong sex bias. Asthma not only occurs more frequently among adult women in the reproductive years of their lives, but adult females also exhibit a more severe form of asthma. However, we are still far from explaining why these differences occur and using them to our advantage when treating patients. Women are still underrepresented in most clinical trials investigating new drugs, yet knowledge of their responses to drugs in asthma is essential in developing optimal treatments for both men and women. Sex hormones undoubtedly play a major role in the differences between male and female asthma, but little is known about how sex hormones affect the pathogenesis of asthma and what their targets are. It therefore seems prudent to first uncover in what ways asthma differs in men and women before embarking on trying to elucidate how sex hormones affect these processes. Understanding the mechanisms involved will eventually also improve treatment options for both men and women.
哮喘的发病率存在明显的性别差异。哮喘不仅在女性生殖年龄段更为常见，而且成年女性还表现出更为严重的哮喘形式。然而，我们仍远未解释这些差异产生的原因，也未能在治疗患者时利用这些原因。在大多数研究新药的临床试验中，女性的代表性仍然不足，但了解她们对哮喘药物的反应对于为男性和女性开发最佳治疗方法至关重要。性激素无疑在男性和女性哮喘之间的差异中起主要作用，但对于性激素如何影响哮喘的发病机制及其作用靶点知之甚少。因此，在尝试阐明性激素如何影响这些过程之前，首先揭示哮喘在男性和女性中的差异似乎是谨慎的。了解相关机制最终也将改善男性和女性的治疗选择。
