Infection and Immunity, School of Veterinary Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.
Food and Nutritional Sciences, School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom.
Front Immunol. 2019 Dec 9;10:2705. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.02705. eCollection 2019.
Although sex disparity in immunological function and susceptibility to various inflammatory and infectious disease is recognized in adults, far less is known about the situation in young infants during immune development. We have used an outbred piglet model to explore potential early sex disparity underlying both mucosal immune development and systemic responses to novel antigen. Despite similarities in intestinal barrier function and therefore, presumably, antigen exposure, females had less CD172 (Sirp-α) antigen presenting cells and expression of MHCIIDR at 28 days old compared to males, along with greater regulatory T-cell numbers. This suggests that, during infancy, females may have greater potential for local immune regulation than their male counterparts. However, females also presented with significantly greater systemic antibody responses to injected ovalbumin and dietary soya. Females also synthesized significantly more IgA in mesenteric lymph nodes, whereas males synthesized more in caecal mucosa, suggesting that plasma cells were retained within the MLN in females, but increased numbers of plasma cells circulated through to the mucosal tissue in males. Significant effects of inulin and NCC2818 on the developing immune system were also sex-dependent. Our results may start to explain inconsistencies in outcomes of trials of functional foods in infants, as distinction between males and females is seldom made. Since later functionality of the immune system is highly dependent on appropriate development during infancy, stratifying nutritional interventions by sex may present a novel means of optimizing treatments and preventative strategies to reduce the risk of the development of immunological disorders in later life.
尽管成年人的免疫功能和对各种炎症和感染性疾病的易感性存在性别差异，但对于免疫发育过程中婴幼儿的情况知之甚少。我们使用了一种杂交仔猪模型来探索潜在的早期性别差异，这些差异既与黏膜免疫发育有关，也与对新抗原的全身反应有关。尽管肠道屏障功能相似，因此，推测抗原暴露也相似，但与雄性相比，雌性在 28 天时具有较少的 CD172（Sirp-α）抗原呈递细胞和 MHCIIDR 的表达，同时具有更多的调节性 T 细胞。这表明，在婴儿期，女性可能比男性具有更大的局部免疫调节潜力。然而，女性对注射的卵清蛋白和膳食大豆也表现出显著更高的全身抗体反应。女性还在肠系膜淋巴结中合成了更多的 IgA，而男性在盲肠黏膜中合成了更多的 IgA，这表明在女性中，浆细胞保留在 MLN 中，但在男性中，更多的浆细胞循环到黏膜组织中。菊粉和 NCC2818 对发育中免疫系统的显著影响也具有性别依赖性。我们的研究结果可能开始解释功能性食品在婴儿中的试验结果不一致的原因，因为很少对男性和女性进行区分。由于免疫系统的后期功能高度依赖于婴儿期的适当发育，因此按性别分层营养干预可能是优化治疗和预防策略的一种新方法，以降低日后发生免疫失调的风险。
