Sex effect in mouse and human prion disease.

Sex effect on the incubation period of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) disease in human and ME-7 murine models was investigated. In the 167 vCJD cases reported in the United Kingdom as of January 2009, age at onset was significantly lower in female patients (by 2 years) than in male patients after stratification on birth cohort. In C57/Bl6N mice infected with ME-7 scrapie strain, incubation was shorter in female than in male mice. The incubation period increased in castrated male mice after intraperitoneal infection but not after intracerebral inoculation. In the absence of androgen receptors, the incubation period for prion disease increased after intraperitoneal inoculation. In ovariectomized or estrogen receptor alpha-defective female mice, no effect was observed on the incubation period of mouse prion disease. These results show that androgens influence the prion diseases incubation period after inoculation at a peripheral site.