Society of University SurgeonsThe influence of gender on human innate immunity
Section snippets
Material and methods
All studies were approved by the University of Washington Institutional Review Board, and all subjects provided written informed consent.
Demographic and genomic features
This study included 56 male and 23 female healthy subjects. Baseline characteristics of each group including age, ethnicity, and medications are shown in Table II. Age was similar among the 2 genders. More women were taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs other than aspirin within 72 hours of their blood draw.
Endotoxin-mediated inflammatory cytokine production is influenced by gender
Whole blood LPS–induced cytokine responses from all 79 healthy subjects were determined. Both male and female groups demonstrated substantial within-group variation in the
Discussion
The clinical and experimental observation that gender differences exist in the susceptibility to and outcomes from infection has been a subject of intense investigation. A preponderance of men among septic surgical patients was reported first by McGowan et al37 in 1975. In a large review of discharge data from approximately 750 million hospitalizations in the United States over 20 years, Martin et al7 found that the annual incidence of sepsis was almost 30% higher among men than women (mean
Conclusion
Gender-specific differences in LPS-induced inflammatory cytokine production exist and may explain differences in clinical outcome. Furthermore, these differences persist despite adjustment for relevant polymorphisms, suggesting gender is an important determinant of the innate immune response.
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Presented at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Society of University Surgeons, Nashville, Tennessee, February 9-12, 2005.
Supported by grant T32 GM 07037.