Mechanism of the sex difference in neuronal ischemic cell death

► We examine the effects of in vitro ischemia on cultured neurons. ► Cultured neurons from female brain are more resistant to in vitro ischemia than neurons from males. ► Neurons from females have less sEH expression than those from males at baseline. ► Knockout of the gene encoding sEH eradicates the sex difference in wild-type neurons.