Papers of the Week

The peripheral nervous system has been widely implicated in pathological conditions that exhibit distinct clinical presentations in men and women, most notably in chronic pain disorders. Here, we explored this sexual dimorphism at a molecular level. We expanded the available omics landscape in the PNS to include quantitative proteomics of the human dorsal root ganglia (hDRG) and nerve. Using data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry, we uncovered an extensive protein landscape, validated against tissue-specific differences between the nerve and hDRG. Using a combination of multi-omic analyses and functional support, we then examined sex-differences, highlighting TNFα signalling as a relevant sexually dimorphic pathway in males. These results support a functional sexually dimorphism in the periphery, which is of particular importance to sensory- and pain-related clinical translation.