fig4

Figure 4. Sexual differences in responses to APAP. Panels A, B, and C show the percentage of surviving hepatocytes for females (blue curves) and males (red curves) for a 15 g dose, an 18 g dose of APAP, and a 30 g dose of APAP, respectively, over the first 80 h after ingestion. The 15 g dose is not lethal, the 18 g dose is marginally lethal, and the 30 g dose is definitely lethal without N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) rescue in the ER. The 15 g and 18 g doses show large differences between males and females, while at 30 g, the responses are similar. At 4 g, the daily maximal dose recommended by the FDA, there is also no difference between the sexes (simulations not shown). Panels D, E, and F show the corresponding concentration curves for GSH. As shown in the literature^[18], for moderate to high doses, female GSH recovers more quickly than male GSH.