CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 379Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ResearchNeurogenetic and Muscular Disorders ResearchMuscle Physiology and Disorders

Effects of gender in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

McCombe, Pamela A., Henderson, Robert D.·2010·Gender Medicine
DOI 10.1016/j.genm.2010.11.010
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Background There is evidence that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND), is more common in men than in women and that gender influences the clinical features of the disease. The causes of this are unknown.Objective This review examines the gender differences that are found in ALS and postulates reasons for these differences.Methods A literature review of PubMed (with no date limits) was performed to find information about gender differences in the incidence, prevalence, and clinical features of ALS, using the search terms ALS or MND and gender or sex, ALS prevalence, and SOD1 mice and gender. Articles were reviewed for information about gender differences, together with other articles that were already known to the authors.Results The incidence and prevalence of ALS are greater in men than in women. This gender difference is seen in large studies that included all ALS patients (sporadic and familial), but is not seen when familial ALS is studied independently. Men predominate in the younger age groups of patients with ALS. Sporadic ALS has different clinical features in men and women, with men having a greater likelihood of onset in the spinal regions, and women tending to have onset in the bulbar region. Gender appears to have no clear effect on survival. In animals with superoxide dismutase 1 (sod1) mutations, sex does affect the clinical course of disease, with earlier onset in males. Possible reasons for the differences in ALS between men and women include different exposures to environmental toxins, different biological responses to exogenous toxins, and possibly underlying differences between the male and female nervous systems and different abilities to repair damage.Conclusions There is a complex interaction between gender and clinical phenotypes in ALS. Understanding the causes of the gender differences could give clues to processes that modify the disease.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.genm.2010.11.010

Cites

122 of 122 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
McCombe, P. A., & Henderson, R. D.
Affiliations
The University of Queensland (AU)
Corresponding author
McCombe, Pamela A.
ORCID
Venue
Gender Medicine
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2010-12
Volume
7
Issue
6
Pages
557-570
ISSN
1550-8579 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.genm.2010.11.010
OpenAlex
W2007336957
Cited by
379
References
122
Citations by year
2026: 26 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 36 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 19
FWCI
1.67
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Gender Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Sanofi
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Genetics › Neurogenetic and Muscular Disorders Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Muscle Physiology and Disorders
Keywords
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, motor neuron disease, sex differences, clinical phenotype, familial ALS, sporadic ALS, survival, environmental toxin exposure
MeSH terms
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Animals, Environmental Exposure, Female, Humans, Male, Nervous System Physiological Phenomena, Sex Factors, Incidence, Prevalence, Age of Onset, Models, Animal, Mice

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review