Service of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Department of Surgery, EOC, 6900, Lugano, Switzerland.
Applied and Translational Research Center, IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, 40136, Bologna, Italy.
Biol Sex Differ. 2022 Jul 30;13(1):44. doi: 10.1186/s13293-022-00453-z.
Tendinopathies are common overuse disorders that arise both in athletes and the general population. Available tendon treatments are used both for women and men without distinction. However, the existence of a sex-based difference in tendon biology is widely demonstrated. Since basic research represents the foundation for treatment development, an equal female-male representation should be pursued in preclinical studies. This systematic review quantified the current evidence by analyzing 150 studies on 8231 animals. Preclinical studies largely neglected the importance of sex, none analyzed sex-based differences, and only 4% of the studies reported disaggregated data suitable for the analysis of treatment results in males and females. There is an alarming female under-representation, in particular in the field of injective therapies. Despite the growing awareness on the importance of investigating treatments in both males and females, the investigated field proved resistant from properly designing studies including both sexes, and the lack of sex-representation remains critical.
腱病是一种常见的过度使用性疾病，既发生在运动员中，也发生在普通人群中。现有的肌腱治疗方法男女通用。然而，广泛证明了肌腱生物学存在基于性别的差异。由于基础研究是治疗发展的基础，因此应在临床前研究中追求男女平等的代表性。通过分析 8231 只动物的 150 项研究，本系统综述量化了目前的证据。临床前研究在很大程度上忽视了性别的重要性，没有分析基于性别的差异，只有 4%的研究报告了适合分析男性和女性治疗结果的分类数据。女性的代表性严重不足，尤其是在注射治疗领域。尽管人们越来越意识到在男性和女性中都需要调查治疗方法的重要性，但该研究领域仍然难以设计包括两性的研究，性别代表性的缺乏仍然是一个关键问题。
