School of Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Royal Veterinary College, London, UK.
J Bone Miner Res. 2023 Jan;38(1):5-13. doi: 10.1002/jbmr.4729. Epub 2022 Nov 13.
Despite knowledge that sexually dimorphic mechanisms regulate bone homeostasis, sex often remains unreported and unconsidered in preclinical experimental design. Failure to report sex could lead to inappropriate generalizations of research findings and less effective translation into clinical practice. Preclinical sex bias (preferential selection of one sex) is present across other fields, including neuroscience and immunology, but remains uninvestigated in skeletal research. For context, we first summarized key literature describing sexually dimorphic bone phenotypes in mice. We then investigated sex reporting practices in skeletal research, specifically how customary it is for murine sex to be included in journal article titles or abstracts and then determined whether any bias in sex reporting exists. Because sex hormones are important regulators of bone health (gonadectomy procedures, ie, ovariectomy [OVX] and orchidectomy [ORX], are common yet typically not reported with sex), we incorporated reporting of OVX and ORX terms, representing female and male mice, respectively, into our investigations around sex bias. Between 1999 and 2020, inclusion of sex in titles or abstracts was low in murine skeletal studies (2.6%-4.06%). Reporting of OVX and ORX terms was low (1.44%-2.64%) and reporting of OVX and ORX with sex uncommon (0.4%-0.3%). When studies were combined to include both sexes and OVX (representing female) and ORX terms (representing male), a bias toward reporting of female mice was evident. However, when the terms OVX and ORX were removed, a bias toward the use of male mice was identified. Thus, studies focusing on sex hormones are biased toward female reporting with all other studies biased in reporting of male mice. We now call upon journal editors to introduce consistent guidance for transparent and accessible reporting of murine sex in skeletal research to better monitor preclinical sex bias, to diversify development of treatments for bone health, and to enable global skeletal health equity. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR).
尽管人们已经了解到性别二态机制可以调节骨稳态，但在临床前实验设计中，性别往往没有被报告或考虑。不报告性别可能导致研究结果的不恰当概括，并且在转化为临床实践时效果不佳。临床前性别偏见（优先选择一种性别）存在于包括神经科学和免疫学在内的其他领域，但在骨骼研究中尚未得到调查。为此，我们首先总结了描述小鼠中性别二态性骨表型的关键文献。然后，我们调查了骨骼研究中的性别报告实践，特别是在期刊文章标题或摘要中纳入雄性和雌性的惯用程度，然后确定是否存在性别报告的偏见。由于性激素是骨骼健康的重要调节剂（去势手术，即卵巢切除术[OVX]和睾丸切除术[ORX]，是常见的但通常不报告性别），我们将 OVX 和 ORX 术语的报告纳入了我们对性别偏见的调查中，分别代表雌性和雄性小鼠。在 1999 年至 2020 年期间，标题或摘要中纳入性别的小鼠骨骼研究比例较低（2.6%-4.06%）。OVX 和 ORX 术语的报告比例较低（1.44%-2.64%），而同时报告 OVX 和 ORX 以及性别的情况罕见（0.4%-0.3%）。当将研究结合起来包括两性和 OVX（代表雌性）和 ORX 术语（代表雄性）时，报告雌性小鼠的倾向明显。然而，当去除 OVX 和 ORX 术语时，报告雄性小鼠的倾向则更为明显。因此，关注性激素的研究偏向于报告雌性，而所有其他研究则偏向于报告雄性。现在，我们呼吁期刊编辑为骨骼研究中透明和易于访问的雄性报告引入一致的指导，以更好地监测临床前性别偏见，为骨骼健康治疗方法的多样化发展，并实现全球骨骼健康公平。© 2022 作者。《骨与矿物质研究杂志》由 Wiley 期刊出版公司代表美国骨与矿物质研究协会（ASBMR）出版。
