Sex differences in human pre-gastrulation embryos  

作　　者：Yongjie Lu Meng Qin Xintong Qi Ming Yang Fan Zhai Jiaqi Zhang Zhiqiang Yan Liying Yan Jie Qiao Peng Yuan 

机构地区：[1]State Key Laboratory of Female Fertility Promotion,Center for Reproductive Medicine,Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology,Peking University Third Hospital,Beijing 100191,China [2]National Clinical Research Center for Obstetrics and Gynecology(Peking University Third Hospital),Beijing 100191,China [3]Key Laboratory of Assisted Reproduction(Peking University),Ministry of Education,Beijing 100191,China [4]Beijing Key Laboratory of Reproductive Endocrinology and Assisted Reproductive Technology,Beijing 100191,China [5]Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies,Peking University,Beijing 100871,China

出　　处：《Science China(Life Sciences)》2025年第2期397-415,共19页中国科学(生命科学英文版)

基　　金：funded by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program(2019YFA0110001 and 2022YFC2702200);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(82288102,82125013,82201838,and 82101677);the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by China Association for Science and Technology(YESS20200398)。

摘　　要：Human fetuses exhibit notable sex differences in growth rate and response to the intrauterine environment,yet their origins and underlying mechanisms remain uncertain.Here,we conduct a detailed investigation of sex differences in human pre-gastrulation embryos.The lower methylation and incomplete inactivation of the X chromosome in females,as well as the sex-specific cell-cell communication patterns,contribute to sex-differential transcription.Male trophectoderm is more inclined toward syncytiotrophoblast differentiation and exhibits a stronger hormone secretion capacity,while female trophectoderm tends to retain cytotrophoblast program with stronger mitochondrial function as well as higher vasculogenesis and immunotolerance signals.Male primitive endoderm initiates the anterior visceral endoderm transcriptional program earlier than females.The cell cycle activities of the epiblast and primitive endoderm are higher in males compared to females,while the situation is opposite in the trophectoderm.In conclusion,our study provides in-depth insights into the sex differences in human pre-gastrulation embryos and contributes to unraveling the origins of the sex differences in human fetal development.

关 键 词：human embryo sex difference TROPHECTODERM primitive endoderm EPIBLAST 

分 类 号：R321[医药卫生—人体解剖和组织胚胎学]