University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7280, USA.
Arthritis Res Ther. 2010;12(4):212. doi: 10.1186/ar3091. Epub 2010 Jul 30.
Sex differences in the prevalence, incidence, and severity of osteoarthritis (OA) have long been known. Some differences in the evaluation of this issue across studies may be related to differences in study design, sampling, study size, study populations, targeted joint sites, and definitions of OA. This report highlights recent studies of sex differences in individual joint components imaged by magnetic resonance imaging and in systemic biomarkers of joint metabolism. Particularly important are those studies that examine this issue in young unaffected adults and children before the development of disease. Despite some variation across studies, women appear for the most part to have a thinner and more reduced volume of cartilage in the knee than men, and this may occur from early childhood. It is not clear whether women have a more accelerated rate of cartilage volume loss than men. Few data exist on sex differences in systemic biomarkers of joint metabolism. In these studies, it is critically important to characterize the total body burden of OA and the presence of comorbid conditions likely to influence a given biomarker. Lastly, future research should dovetail studies of sex differences in imaging and biochemical biomarkers with genetics to maximize insight into the mechanisms behind observed sex differences.
性别在骨关节炎（OA）的患病率、发病率和严重程度方面的差异早已为人所知。由于研究设计、采样、研究规模、研究人群、目标关节部位以及 OA 的定义等方面的差异，可能导致了对这一问题的评估存在差异。本报告重点介绍了最近关于磁共振成像个体关节成分和关节代谢系统生物标志物的性别差异的研究。特别重要的是那些在疾病发生之前研究年轻未受影响的成年人和儿童的研究。尽管各研究之间存在一些差异，但女性膝关节的软骨厚度和体积似乎比男性更薄、更小，这种情况可能从儿童早期就开始了。目前尚不清楚女性的软骨体积丧失速度是否比男性更快。关于关节代谢系统生物标志物的性别差异的数据很少。在这些研究中，至关重要的是要描述 OA 的全身负担以及可能影响特定生物标志物的合并症的存在。最后，未来的研究应该将影像学和生化生物标志物的性别差异研究与遗传学相结合，以最大程度地深入了解观察到的性别差异背后的机制。
