Hemorrhage, trauma, ischemia/reperfusion, burn, and sepsis each lead to cardiac dysfunction. These insults lead to an inflammatory cascade, which plays an important role in this process. Gender has been shown to influence the inflammatory response, as well as outcomes after acute injury. The mechanisms by which gender affects the inflammatory response to and the outcome of acute injury are being actively investigated. We searched PubMed for articles in the English language by using the search words sex, gender, estrogen, testosterone, inflammation, acute injury, ischemia reperfusion, sepsis, trauma, and burns. These were used in various combinations. We read the abstracts of the relevant titles to confirm their relevance, and the full articles were then extracted. References from extracted articles were checked for any additional relevant articles. This review will examine evidence for gender differences in the outcome to acute injury, explain the myocardial inflammatory response to acute injury, and elucidate the various mechanisms by which gender affects the myocardial response to acute injury.

Adhesive/abrasive wear in ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) has been minimized by radiation cross-linking. Irradiation is followed by melting to eliminate residual free radicals and avoid long-term oxidative embrittlement. However, post-irradiation melting reduces the crystallinity of the polymer and hence its strength and fatigue resistance. We proposed an alternative to post-irradiation melting to be the incorporation of the antioxidant α-tocopherol into UHMWPE prior to consolidation. α-Tocopherol is known to react with oxygen and oxidized lipids, stabilizing them against further oxidative degradation reactions. We blended GUR 1050 UHMWPE resin powder with α-tocopherol at 0.1 and 0.3 wt% and consolidated these blends. Then we gammairradiated these blends to 100-kGy. We characterized the effect of α-tocopherol on the cross-linking efficiency, oxidative stability, wear behavior and mechanical properties of the blends. (I) The crosslink density of virgin, 0.1 and 0.3 wt% α-tocopherol blended, 100-kGy irradiated UHMWPEs were 175±19, 146±4 and 93±4 mol/m 3 , respectively. (II) Maximum oxidation indices for 100-kGy irradiated UHMWPE previously blended with 0, 0.1 and 0.3 wt% α-tocopherol that were subjected to accelerated aging at 80 °C in air for 5 weeks were 3.32, 0.09, and 0.05, respectively. (III) The pinon-disc wear rates of 100-kGy irradiated UHMWPE previously blended with 0.1 and 0.3 wt% α-tocopherol that were subjected to accelerated aging at 80 °C in air for 5 weeks were 2.10±0.17 and 5.01±0.76 mg/million cycles, respectively. (IV) Both accelerated aged, α-tocopherol-blended 100-kGy irradiated UHMWPEs showed higher ultimate tensile strength, higher yield strength, and lower elastic modulus when compared to 100-kGy irradiated, virgin UHMWPE. These results showed that α-tocopherol-blended 100-kGy irradiated UHMWPEs were not cross-linked to the same extent as the 100-kGy irradiated, virgin UHMWPE.

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