Another swine intersex with a female chromosome complement

Male or Female? Brains are Intersex

The underlying assumption in popular and scientific publications on sex differences in the brain is that human brains can take one of two forms "male" or "female," and that the differences between these two forms underlie differences between men and women in personality, cognition, emotion, and behavior. Documented sex differences in brain structure are typically taken to support this dimorphic...

Shifting syndromes: Sex chromosome variations and intersex classifications

The 2006 'Consensus statement on management of intersex disorders' recommended moving to a new classification of intersex variations, framed in terms of 'disorders of sex development' or DSD. Part of the rationale for this change was to move away from associations with gender, and to increase clarity by grounding the classification system in genetics. While the medical community has largely acc...

A role for sex chromosome complement in the female bias in autoimmune disease

Most autoimmune diseases are more common in women than in men. This may be caused by differences in sex hormones, sex chromosomes, or both. In this study, we determined if there was a contribution of sex chromosomes to sex differences in susceptibility to two immunologically distinct disease models, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and pristane-induced lupus. Transgenic SJL mice ...

Complement and arthritis: another step in understanding

In a recent research article in Arthritis Research and Therapy ('Analysis of C204 and the C4 binding protein in the MRL/lpr mouse'), Wenderfer and colleagues report that deficiency in C4 binding protein, a down-regulator of the classic pathway of complement, does not affect the development of autoimmune disease. These data support the earlier finding that the alternative pathway, and not the cl...

X-Chromosome Complement and Estrogen