ArticleBiology of sex differences2018
Sex differences in the traumatic stress response: the role of adult gonadal hormones.
Article in Biology of sex differences, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 59 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic Review and Methodological Considerations for the Use of Single Prolonged Stress and Fear Extinction Retention in Rodents.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Sex-specific effects of low-dose hydrocortisone on threat detection in HIV.Journal of neurovirology · 2021Trial
- Development of a novel analysis method for evaluating PTSD-like behavior in mice based on DSM-V criteria.Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2026Article
- PAG-dependent defensive strategy selection: From stress-induced rigidity to adaptive flexibility.iScience · 2026Article
- The Single-Prolonged Stress Model Fails to Produce Behavioral or Corticosterone Alterations in Rats.eNeuro · 2026Article
- Acid-sensing ion channel 1a deficiency drives endocrine hypertension in male mice.The Journal of physiology · 2026Article
- Associations between testosterone and future PTSD symptoms among middle age and older UK residents.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Sex-stratified patterns in geriatric patients with mild traumatic brain injury and intracranial bleeding: a retrospective cohort study.International journal of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Depletion ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Proteomic insights into extinction memory deficits in stress-susceptible female rats.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Rat Models in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Research: Strengths, Limitations, and Implications for Translational Studies.Pathophysiology : the official journal of the International Society for Pathophysiology · 2024Review
- Androgen regulation of behavioral stress responses and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.Hormones and behavior · 2024Review
- Sex-specific antioxidant biomarker depletion in patients with a history of mild traumatic brain injury.Advances in redox research · 2024Article
- The stress of losing sleep: Sex-specific neurobiological outcomes.Neurobiology of stress · 2023Article
- Regional gray matter oligodendrocyte- and myelin-related measures are associated with differential susceptibility to stress-induced behavior in rats and humans.Translational psychiatry · 2021Article
- Major depressive symptoms in breast cancer patients with ovarian function suppression: a cross-sectional study comparing ovarian ablation and gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists.BMC psychiatry · 2021Article
- Disentangling sex differences in the shared genetic architecture of posttraumatic stress disorder, traumatic experiences, and social support with body size and composition.Neurobiology of stress · 2021Article
- Immune receptor toll-like receptor 4 contributes to stress-induced affective responses in a sex-specific manner.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2021Article
- An Advanced Transcriptional Response to Corticosterone After Single Prolonged Stress in Male Rats.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Article
- Maternal Separation Induces Sex-Specific Differences in Sensitivity to Traumatic Stress.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundOur previous study revealed that adult female rats respond differently to trauma than adult males, recapitulating sex differences in symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exhibited by women and men. Here, we asked two questions: does the female phenotype depend on (1) social housing condition and/or (2) circulating gonadal hormones?
methodsFor the first study, the effects of single prolonged stress (SPS) were compared for females singly or pair-housed. For the second study, adult male and female rats were gonadectomized or sham-gonadectomized 2 weeks prior to exposure to SPS, with half the gonadectomized rats given testosterone. In addition to the typical measures of the trauma response in rats, acoustic startle response (ASR), and the dexamethasone suppression test (DST), we also used two other measures typically used to assess depressive-like responses, social interaction and sucrose preference. Glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression in the hypothalamus was also examined.
resultsWe now report that the distinct trauma response of female rats is not influenced by social housing condition. Moreover, sex differences in the response to SPS based on ASR and DST, replicated in the current study, are independent of adult gonadal hormones. Regardless of hormonal status, traumatized males show a hyper-responsive phenotype whereas traumatized females do not. Moreover, testosterone treatment in adulthood did not masculinize the response to trauma in females. Notably, both sucrose preference and social interaction tests revealed an effect of trauma in females but not in males, with the effects of SPS on sucrose preference dependent on ovarian hormones. Effects of SPS on GR expression in the hypothalamus also depended on gonadal hormones in females.
conclusionsWe propose that the trauma response for female rats is depressive in nature, recapitulating the female bias in PTSD for internalizing symptoms and major depression in contrast to the externalizing symptoms of males. Presumed core markers of PTSD (enhanced ASR and negative feedback control of corticosterone) are apparently relevant only to males and are independent of adult gonadal hormones. Such sex differences in trauma responding are likely determined earlier in life. We conclude that males and females show fundamentally different responses to trauma that do not simply reflect differences in resilience.
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