Which is More Precious, Male or Female Brain?

By Alex in Health on Mar 15, 2009 at 4:11 pm

Gender equality and political correctness aside, Mother Nature has decided the answer: female neurons are more valuable.

Writing in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, a group of researchers found that nutrient deprivation of neurons produced sex-dependent effects. Male neurons more readily withered up and died, while female neurons did their best to conserve energy and stay alive. [...]

Robert Clark and colleagues at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center examined whether this sex-dependent response in starvation could manifest in brain cells. They grew neurons taken separately from male and female rats or mice in lab dishes and subjected them to starvation over 72 hours.

After 24 hours, the male neurons experienced significantly more cell dysfunction (measured by analyzing cell respiration, which decreased by over 70% in male cells compared to 50% in female cells) and death. Visually, male neurons also displayed more abundant signs of autophagy, whereby a cell breaks down its components as a fuel source, while female neurons created more lipid droplets to store fat reserves.

Tags: Brain, neuron, Robert Clark, starvation

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Edward
Mar 15th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Anthropomorphic twaddle.

Of course, I am male, so what do I know?
James Tracy
Mar 15th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
So how does this make female neurons more valuable / precious? Doesn’t this just mean females have historically eaten less, so their neurons had to cope with fewer resources?

How does that make them any more valuable? Sure, it would help if you were literally starving, but there’s no value in something unless it’s used, traded, or coveted.
Zizkovak
Mar 15th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Hmmm… But why would this happen? There must be some explanation for the difference. Is the rapid loss the byproduct of some functional difference?
el lobito
Mar 16th, 2009 at 12:10 am
At the butcher shop, there was a special on brains. The sign said “men’s brains: $10/pound – women’s brains: $50/pound” When asked about the price difference, the butcher of course replied, “Have you any idea how many women it takes to get a pound of brains?”
Elle Ferrer
Mar 16th, 2009 at 3:27 am
@el lobito…that was funny. Mother Nature is right – women brains (and bodies) are more valuable than men’s.
just a guy
Mar 16th, 2009 at 4:12 am
I was curious about the ‘precious’ or ‘value’ thing.

If the male neuron is more ‘fragile’ or dies quicker, doesn’t that make *it* more ‘precious’?

As for longer living – that makes them more durable, but not more ‘valuable’. For example, steel is more durable that gold. You see where I’m going with that..

If value is based on *rarity* however…. lol…
Nandiva
Mar 16th, 2009 at 9:48 am
The idea of value being based of rarity is true in the economic field, but in the body, value is based on usefulness. For example, in freezing weather, the blood will move towards the heart and central organs. The body values these organs because without them it will die, and it’s willing to sacrifice toes to keep them alive. The idea behind the rat-brain study is that the body is willing to go to greater lengths to keep the female neurons alive, therefore it must find them more useful in some unnamed way than the male neurons which it is more quick to sacrifice.
violet
Mar 16th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Maybe women’s cells were more protected because in times of scarcity, a woman’s dying would threaten the continuation of the species.
Scooter
Mar 16th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
I believe Violet hit the nail on the head, one man plus a handful of women equals more kids that the other way around. Women are more valuable to the species.
Gauldar
Mar 17th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Is this also why women have a tendancy to have a longer lifespan then men?
WordyGrrl
Mar 17th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Violet is right, yep. A pregnant woman is sharing her nutritional intake with a growing fetus for nine months — then she has to ingest enough nutrients enough to produce food (milk) for that infant until it can feed itself. Her body has to be efficient at a very basic level in order to keep two people alive. Otherwise, well… no human race.

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