Open AccessSex and Gender Bias in Kidney Transplantation: 3D Bioprinting as a Challenge to Personalized Medicine
Author(s) -
Ma van Daal,
Maaike Muntinga,
Sandra Steffens,
Annemie Halsema,
Petra Verdonk
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
women's health reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2688-4844
DOI - 10.1089/whr.2020.0047
Subject(s) - transplantation , kidney transplantation , altruism (biology) , 3d bioprinting , personalized medicine , regenerative medicine , medicine , sex characteristics , psychology , biology , bioinformatics , stem cell , tissue engineering , social psychology , genetics , biomedical engineering
In this article, we explore to what extent sex and gender differences may be reproduced in the 3D bioprinting of kidneys. Sex and gender differences have been observed in kidney function, anatomy, and physiology, and play a role in kidney donation and transplantation through differences in kidney size (sex aspect) and altruism (gender aspect). As a form of personalized medicine, 3D bioprinting might be expected to eliminate sex and gender bias. On the basis of an analysis of recent literature, we conclude that personalized techniques such as 3D bioprinting of kidneys alone do not mean that sex and gender bias does not happen. Therefore, sex and gender considerations should be included into every step of developing and using 3D-bioprinted kidneys: in the choice of design, cells, biomaterials, and X-chromosome-activated cells.