查看文章

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common acquired inflammatory demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system (CNS). Not unlike many inflammatory diseases with a presumed autoimmune pathogenesis, it has been established that there is a female preponderance in prevalence. While in the past it was shown that there are two women for every man with a diagnosis of MS, recent serial cross-sectional assessments provide compelling evidence for an increase of the female to male sex ratio in patients with relapsing–remitting MS over the last decades. An understanding of this phenomenon might provide key insights into the pathogenesis of the disease but also may have implications for health-care strategies and further research efforts. We review possible etiologies for the gender disparity in MS, and we discuss possible underlying causes. We determined that the biologically most plausible explanations …