Table 3.

Synopsis of human studies.

Study	Sample Size/Gender	Healthy/OA	Assessment	Follow-Up (N/A in Cross-Sectional Studies)	Major Findings
Cicuttini et al. [26]	n = 45 (males)	healthy	Relationship between sex hormones levels and the tibial cartilage volume	N/A	Positive association of the serum testosterone level with total tibial cartilage and medial tibial cartilage volume
F. Hanna et al. [27]	n = 28 (males)	healthy	The factors determining cartilage loss	2 years	Positive association of the serum testosterone level with the tibial cartilage loss
F. S. Hanna et al. [28]	n = 139 (females)	healthy	Relationship between serum testosterone, preandrogens and SHBG levels, and the knee structure	N/A	Positive association between SHBG levels and patella bone volume
Jin et al. [29]	n = 200 males: 107 females: 93	OA	Relationship between endogenous sex hormones levels, the knee structure, and pain	2 years	Positive association of low serum endogenous estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone levels with increased knee effusion-synovitis in women
de Kruijf et al. [30]	n = 9811 males: 4266 females: 5545	healthy and OA	Relationship between sex hormone levels and chronic pain	5.6 ± 2.3 years	Positive association of low sex hormone levels and chronic musculoskeletal pain in women
Freystaetter et al. [31]	n = 272 males: 127 females: 145	OA	Relationship between testosterone level, knee pain, and function	N/A	Negative correlation of testosterone levels and pain in men and women Negative correlation of testosterone levels and disability in women
Calvet et al. [32]	n = 115 (females)	OA	Relationship between synovial fluid adipokines, pain, and function	N/A	Positive association of adiponectin and pain Positive association of resistin and disability Negative correlation of visfatin and disability
Perruccio et al. [33]	n = 87 males: 33 females: 45	OA	Relationship between plasma adipokine levels and pain	N/A	Positive association of leptin and adiponectin levels with pain in women Positive association of low adipsin levels with pain in women Negative correlation of resistin and pain in men
C. Li & Zheng [15]	n = 38 males: 22 females: 16	healthy and OA	Transcriptome dataset	N/A	Cartilage has different gene expression between males and females, even in healthy joints
F. S. Hanna et al. [34]	n = 271 males: 102 females: 169	healthy	Longitudinal gender differences in knee cartilage in a cohort of healthy adults	2.3 years	Greater annual percentage of total tibial cartilage volume loss in women Increased risk of tibiofemoral cartilage defects progression in women
Wise et al. [35]	n = 608 males: 229 females: 379	healthy and OA	Relationship between bone shape and OA incidence in men and women	N/A	Bone shape variations, namely the relative elevation and angle of the condyles to the shaft, can mitigate the risk of incident OA in women.
Tummala et al. [36]	n = 1595 males: 662 females: 933	healthy and OA	Gender differences in contact area and congruity index in the medial tibiofemoral joint	N/A	Higher normalized contact area and poorer congruence in women
Kerrigan et al. [37]	n = 99 males: 50 females: 49	healthy	Gender differences in joint biomechanics during walking	N/A	Increased hip flexion and reduced knee extension before initial contact, greater knee flexion moment in pre-swing, and greater peak mechanical joint power absorption at the knee pre-swing in women
Sims et al. [38]	n = 56 males: 26 females: 30	OA	Gender differences in joint biomechanics during walking in OA patients	N/A	Lower knee adduction moment and higher stride frequency in women
Ro et al. [39]	n = 84 males: 42 females: 42	healthy	Gender differences in joint biomechanics during walking in geriatric population	N/A	Higher peak KAM in women Increased mechanical loading on the knee associated with narrow step width and wide pelvis in women
Kumar et al. [40]	n = 76 males: 38 females: 38	healthy and OA	Gender differences in the knee cartilage composition and joint biomechanics in healthy and osteoarthritis populations	N/A	Higher lateral articular cartilage T1q and patellofemoral T1q in OA women Lower varus during walking in women Lower static varus and peak adduction moment in the second half of stance in middle-aged women Higher knee flexion moment in young women
Lu et al. [41]	n = 883 males: 199 females: 684	OA	Gender differences in the dynamic changes of lower limbs morphology in OA patients	1 month	Dynamic deformation of lower extremities and degeneration of articular cartilage in women, but not in men
Slemenda et al. [42]	n = 342 males: 164 females: 178	healthy and OA	Relationship between baseline lower extremity muscle weakness and incident radiographic knee OA	31.3 ± 10.0 months	Reduced quadriceps strength relative to body weight may be a risk factor for knee OA in women

SHBG—sex hormone binding globulin; ML/AP—medial–lateral/anterior–posterior; TKA—total knee arthroplasty; KAM—knee adduction moment.