Copyright
©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 7, 2016; 22(5): 1800-1810
Published online Feb 7, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i5.1800
Published online Feb 7, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i5.1800
Gender difference in gastro-esophageal reflux diseases
Kiyotaka Asanuma, Katsunori Iijima, Tooru Shimosegawa, Division of Gastroenterology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Miyagi Prefecture 980-8574, Japan
Author contributions: Asanuma K drafted and edited this review; Iijima K edited and critically revised this manuscript; and Shimosegawa T approved the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Katsunori Iijima, MD, Division of Gastroenterology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1 Seiryo-machi Aobaku Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture 980-8574, Japan. kiijima@med.tohoku.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-22-7177171 Fax: +81-22-7177177
Received: June 25, 2015
Peer-review started: June 27, 2015
First decision: September 9, 2015
Revised: October 7, 2015
Accepted: December 30, 2015
Article in press: December 30, 2015
Published online: February 7, 2016
Peer-review started: June 27, 2015
First decision: September 9, 2015
Revised: October 7, 2015
Accepted: December 30, 2015
Article in press: December 30, 2015
Published online: February 7, 2016
Core Tip
Core tip: Gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD), Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma are epidemiologically recognized to be more prevalent in males due to an unknown mechanism. Our recent animal study revealed that estrogen contributes to the gender difference by inactivating inflammatory cells. Additionally, several studies demonstrated that estrogen confers epithelial resistance against causative refluxate and modifies adipose tissue metabolism in obese people and prevent the onset of GERDs. Consequently, the estrogen-related endocrine milieu in women could retard the progression of chronic inflammation to esophageal carcinogenesis, which is likely responsible for the predominance of GERD in males.