The purpose of this research was to determine what biological sex differences contribute to mood disorders being twice as common in women than in men. The authors set up a series of experiments that involved (i) gonadectomizing a group of mice to test the difference of circulating hormones, (ii) giving a dose of testosterone to female mice to test the organizational effects of hormones, and (iii) using genetic manipulation to test the effects of the sex chromosome complement by moving the Sry gene on the Y chromosome to an autosome. The results showed that a combination of both the male sex chromosome complement and the effects of testosterone caused male mice to have lower anxiety levels than female mice. The authors found that the male sex chromosome complement influenced the expression of somatostatin (SST) and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) related genes. In addition, they hypothesized that the testosterone in males opposed the pro-anxiety effects of the sex chromosome complement. The author's results show that sex differences in mood have a biological basis. They hope that this information can help other scientists examine the sex differences in mood in humans. Seney, Marianne L., and Etienne Sibille. "Sex Differences in Mood Disorders: Perspectives from Humans and Rodent Models." Biology of Sex Differences. N.p., 7 Dec. 2014. Web. 20 Aug. 2015. |
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