Testosterone: More Than Having the Guts to Win the Tour de France Dingding An, Dennis L. Kasper Immunity Volume 39, Issue 2, Pages 208-210 (August 2013) DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2013.08.015 Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. Terms and Conditions
Figure 1 Testosterone and Testosterone-Specific Microbes Lead to Sex-Biased Protection in T1D The incidence of T1D is significantly higher in female compared to male NOD mice. In the adult NOD male mouse, a high testosterone level enriches the microbiota for specific organisms such as segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB) and Escherichia coli or Shigella–like (SECS) strains. These microbes also upregulate host testosterone. A minimum level of testosterone and specific male-enriched microbes working together upregulate M2 macrophage and IFN-γ producing T cells in pancreatic lymph nodes. Microarray data show that both the IFN-γ and IL-1β pathways are also stimulated. Yurkovetskiy et al. propose that these pathways lead to a sex-biased protection of T1D. Immunity 2013 39, 208-210DOI: (10.1016/j.immuni.2013.08.015) Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. Terms and Conditions