Research
A research article I found said that genetic specificities of sex chromosomes impact the likelihood and severity of developing diseases, such as hypertension, cardiac ischemia, obesity, aneurism, or atherosclerosis (Arnold et al., 2017). It is important to add that not only sex chromosomes determine biological sex of a person, but there are other four mechanisms of action by sex chromosomes. It was found that sex-biasing mechanisms are “gonadal (hormone-mediated) effects of Sry, nongonadal effects of Y genes, X gene dosage, and imprinting of X genes” (Arnold et al., 2017). In other words, the Y chromosome does not operate solely through hormones, and the X chromosome’s dosage is relevant.
Critical Thinking
It is vital to note that a new idea and possibility would be to incorporate sex chromosome genetic screening to identify individual vulnerabilities to these metabolic diseases. In addition, a large-scale population data analysis can reveal patterns of health factors among people with different sex chromosomes, such as male and female. The text primarily advocates for the humanistic perspective, where a person is not viewed through some aspect but as a whole (Saladin, 2020). It is stated that “in species with sex chromosomes, differences between genomic regions with unique inheritance patterns can be used to distinguish between different sets of possible demographic and selective events” (Sayres, 2018). The topic is important to me, my community, society, and the world because biological sex deeply affects humans. Thus, it is critical to integrate sex chromosome-linked disease risk factors into the humanistic healthcare perspective. Sex chromosomes should not be solely associated with genetic illnesses because their influence is more profound, and metabolic diseases are responsible for a higher percentage of deaths.
References
Arnold, A. P., Cassis, L. A., Eghbali, M., Reue, K., & Sandberg, K. (2017). Sex hormones and sex chromosomes cause sex differences in the development of cardiovascular diseases. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 37(5), 746–756.
Saladin, K. (2020). Anatomy & physiology: The unity of form and function (9th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Sayres, W. M. A. (2018). Genetic diversity on the sex chromosomes. Genome Biology and Evolution, 10(4), 1064–1078.