Sexual Dimorphism in the Mechanism of Pain Central Sensitization

Ellane Barcelon; Seohyun Chung; Jaesung Lee; Sung Joong Lee

doi:10.3390/cells12162028

Sexual Dimorphism in the Mechanism of Pain Central Sensitization

Cells. 2023 Aug 9;12(16):2028. doi: 10.3390/cells12162028.

Authors

Ellane Barcelon¹, Seohyun Chung¹, Jaesung Lee^{1

2}, Sung Joong Lee^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, School of Dentistry, Dental Research Institute, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

It has long been recognized that men and women have different degrees of susceptibility to chronic pain. Greater recognition of the sexual dimorphism in chronic pain has resulted in increasing numbers of both clinical and preclinical studies that have identified factors and mechanisms underlying sex differences in pain sensitization. Here, we review sexually dimorphic pain phenotypes in various research animal models and factors involved in the sex difference in pain phenotypes. We further discuss putative mechanisms for the sexual dimorphism in pain sensitization, which involves sex hormones, spinal cord microglia, and peripheral immune cells. Elucidating the sexually dimorphic mechanism of pain sensitization may provide important clinical implications and aid the development of sex-specific therapeutic strategies to treat chronic pain.

Keywords: central sensitization; microglia; neuropathic pain; sexual dimorphism.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Central Nervous System Sensitization
Chronic Pain*
Female
Humans
Male
Microglia
Models, Animal
Sex Characteristics*

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education, grant number NRF-2019R1A2C2087493, 2021R1A4A1021594, and 2022R1A2C1091994.