Gender-related metabolomics and lipidomics: From experimental animal models to clinical evidence

Abstract

Lipidomics and metabolomics have emerged as important tools for the characterization of specific physiological and pathological traits. The selection of the analytical approaches and the choice of a targeted rather than an untargeted strategy in metabolomics find their reasons in the driving hypothesis of the study, sample features and instrumental availability. Moreover, in the last years, -omics approaches have found their application in the study of sex-related dimorphism. In this review, lipidomic and metabolomic analyses are presented in a biomedical perspective. Here, we provide an updated overview covering recent applications of metabolomics and lipidomics in the area of sex-related differences in human and preclinical models. Experimental evidence underlines that sex is one of the most relevant biological variables significantly influencing metabolomic and lipidomic profiles. This knowledge can be exploited for the identification of novel sex-specific biomarkers and innovative targets relevant for gender medicine.

Keywords: Biomarkers; Lipidome; Metabolome; Sex.