Incoming data suggest troubles related to obesity could be gender-specific. It appears obesity could be more difficult for men.
Researchers found “dramatic” changes in the cells forming blood vessels in the adipose tissue of male vs. female mice, which highlights the fundamental basis of sex differences in obesity-related disease.
“People have used rodent models to study obesity and the diseases associated with obesity — like diabetes –but they’ve typically always studied male rodents because females are resistant to developing the same kinds of diseases. So we were interested in exploring that difference because it spoke of something fascinating happening in females that protects them,”,” says Tara Haas, York University, who led the research.
To narrow down the thousands of genes connected to blood vessel development, the scientists employed software to help sort through the data.
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They found that the female mice had high processes related to the growth of new blood vessels, whereas the male mice had high levels of functions related to inflammation.
Haas is interested in researching the same cells in humans for future research, although humans and mice have distinct genes that can be turned up or down. Nevertheless, Haas is optimistic that the primary finding will apply to humans and animals.
“You can’t make the assumption that both sexes are going to respond to the same series of events the same way. One implication of our findings is that there will be situations where the treatment that is ideal for men is not going to be ideal for women and vice-versa, concludes Haas.