Two pathways of mevalonate metabolism have been demonstrated: the major (sterol) pathway leads to cholesterol synthesis, whereas the second shunts mevalonate away from sterol production and ultimately results in its oxidation to CO2. Previous studies have demonstrated that the female rat metabolizes circulating mevalonate by the shunt pathway at twice the rate of the male, whereas the male rat ...

A number of clinical trials suggest that the antithrombotic effect of aspirin is limited to men. To test the possibility that this is due to a sex difference in the inhibitory effect of aspirin on platelet behavior, we studied whole-blood platelet aggregation in men and women and in male patients with carcinoma of the prostate receiving hormone therapy. The in vitro inhibitory effect of aspirin...

In PNAS, a report by Ingalhalikar et al. (1) has the makings of a landmark paper. Here I would like to briefly suggest why. Biomedical research in general, and neuroscience in particular, has been built on a false assumption. I refer to the assumption that one may safely ignore potential sex influences, for essentially every domain outside sexual functions and sex-specific issues like prostate ...