Immunology Unit, Department of Pathology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia.
Cell Immunol. 2012;272(2):214-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cellimm.2011.10.009. Epub 2011 Oct 25.
Differences in gender immune response have resulted in differences in immune protection and susceptibility to inflammatory diseases. Cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) are widely used in immunomodulation studies, yet the influence of gender is usually not considered. We examined the effect of in vitro culture and phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) stimulation on PBMC lymphocyte subsets using flowcytometry. Full blood counts of whole blood showed higher levels of lymphocyte in male subjects. Lymphocyte subsets enumeration revealed higher NK cell counts in males and higher B cells in females. Cultured PBMC resulted in significant increases in B and total T cell percentages among females and NK cells among males. PHA stimulated significantly increased percentages of NK and total T cells in males and total activated T cells (CD69+) in females. Our results showed significant gender differences in lymphocyte subsets in cultured conditions. This may affect experimental outcome.
性别免疫反应的差异导致了免疫保护和对炎症性疾病的易感性的差异。培养的外周血单核细胞（PBMC）广泛用于免疫调节研究，但通常不考虑性别因素。我们使用流式细胞术检查了体外培养和植物血凝素（PHA）刺激对 PBMC 淋巴细胞亚群的影响。全血的全血细胞计数显示男性受试者的淋巴细胞水平较高。淋巴细胞亚群计数显示男性的 NK 细胞计数较高，女性的 B 细胞计数较高。培养的 PBMC 导致女性的 B 细胞和总 T 细胞百分比以及男性的 NK 细胞显著增加。PHA 刺激显著增加了男性的 NK 和总 T 细胞以及女性的总激活 T 细胞（CD69+）的百分比。我们的结果显示，培养条件下淋巴细胞亚群存在显著的性别差异。这可能会影响实验结果。
