Sex Differences in Pain with Emphasis on Neuroimmune Interactions
To date, the mechanisms underlying how neuroimmune interactions contribute to sex dimorphism of chronic pain remain elusive. Although women suffer from chronic pain at greater rates than men, the current mechanistic understanding of chronic pain has been predominantly derived from the study of male animals. As such, a greater emphasis will be needed to investigate female-specific signaling mechanisms in chronic pain. These efforts will improve our understanding of sex dimorphism in chronic pain and improve the ability of pain medicine address specific patient backgrounds in the future. In this chapter, we will discuss pain-related sex differences in neural, immune, and glial mechanisms, with a focus on sex dimorphism in neuroimmune interactions.
