Gameiro Catia, Romao Fatima
Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Garcia de Orta's Hospital, Almada, Portugal.
Front Biosci (Elite Ed). 2010 Jun 1;2(4):1299-303. doi: 10.2741/e190.
The fact that gender influences the immune system has long been recognised. The higher risk of women developing autoimmune diseases suggests that these are somehow mediated by sex steroids, with estrogens as enhancers at least of the humoral immunity and androgens and progesterone as natural immune-suppressors. The concept of immunosenescence reflects changes in both cellular and humoral immune responses. This may be related with the higher incidence of infectious and chronic diseases. Besides age, in postmenopausal women, changes of the immune system have been attributed to estrogen deprivation. There is an increase in pro-inflammatory serum markers, an increasing response of the body's cells to cytokines, a decrease in CD4 T and B lymphocytes and in the cytotoxic activity of NK cells. In fact IL-6 is a key factor in bone reabsorption by osteoclast activation and also seems to be associated with diseases that occur more in menopause such as diabetes, atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases. Recent studies indicate several changes in immune response, either with suspension of hormone therapy or with its replacement at menopause.
性别影响免疫系统这一事实早已得到认可。女性患自身免疫性疾病的风险更高，这表明这些疾病在某种程度上是由性类固醇介导的，雌激素至少是体液免疫的增强剂，而雄激素和孕酮是天然的免疫抑制剂。免疫衰老的概念反映了细胞免疫和体液免疫反应的变化。这可能与感染性疾病和慢性疾病的较高发病率有关。除年龄外，在绝经后女性中，免疫系统的变化被归因于雌激素缺乏。促炎血清标志物增加，机体细胞对细胞因子的反应增强，CD4 T淋巴细胞和B淋巴细胞减少，NK细胞的细胞毒性活性降低。事实上，白细胞介素-6是破骨细胞激活导致骨吸收的关键因素，似乎也与绝经后更易发生的疾病如糖尿病、动脉粥样硬化和心血管疾病有关。最近的研究表明，无论是停止激素治疗还是在绝经时进行激素替代，免疫反应都会发生一些变化。
