Actually, this is a really important issue. to be discussed. Most of the studies are done with males because of their more stable hormonal status. This does absolutely not imply that results coming from these studies are relevant for females. At some point, researchers should 1/ be rigorous and state that their study is only relevant for males and 2/ conduct more studies on females for comparison. It is like we were forgetting about the existence of 50% of the animal kingdom (and mankind...)...
In some models that attempt to mimic the development of type 2 diabetes there are gender differences. Male rats tend to develop more pronounced insulin resistance whilst females show a greater loss of insulin release and beta cell mass.
We have identified a gene polymorphism of the CNDP1 gene that is associated with differential susceptibility for the development of diabetic nephropathy. However this association was only found in female patients with type 2 diabetes (Mooyaart et al. Diabetes 2010, 59:1555). An additional gender-specific association was found for the CNDP1 genotype and cardiovascular mortality in male patients with type 2 diabetes (Alkhalaf et al. J Nephrol 2014). So, a systematic comparison of gender-specific susceptibility for diabetic complications is warranted, when novel modifying genes are examined.
Male rats have more stable hormonal profile,However, female rats are useful to study mechanisms of different syndromes affecting female rats ,and sometimes humans like pregnancy,hypoestrogenism, prolactin secrection or administración.