Erschienen:
American Society for Microbiology, 2008
Erschienen in:
Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, 15 (2008) 5, Seite 885-887
Sprache:
Englisch
DOI:
10.1128/cvi.00035-08
ISSN:
1556-6811;
1556-679X
Entstehung:
Anmerkungen:
Beschreibung:
ABSTRACT There are often sex differences in susceptibility to infectious diseases and in level of mortality after infection. These differences probably stem from sex-related abilities to mount proper or unwanted immune responses against an infectious agent. We report that hantavirus-infected female patients show significantly higher plasma levels of interleukin-9 (IL-9), fibroblast growth factor 2, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and lower levels of IL-8 and gamma interferon-induced protein 10 than male patients. The results demonstrate that a virus infection can induce sex-dependent differences in acute immune responses in humans. This finding may, at least partly, explain the observed sex differences in susceptibility to infectious diseases and in mortality following infection.