ESPE Abstracts

The exploration of sex differences in the human immune system and how these pertain to health- and disease-related outcomes is a growing field, with a steadily increasing number of papers published in this area (~5k per year in 2000 to ~50k per year in 2020). Cisgender females are generally known to mount stronger responses to most infections, including COVID-19 (Peckham et al, 2020), and more effective responses to many vaccines. However, cis-females are also at greater risk ...

Introduction: Very little is known about the development of the immune system during puberty. Autoimmune diseases, like juvenile onset systemic lupus erythematosus (jSLE), have an unexplained female bias and a higher incidence after puberty. IFN alpha (IFNα) is a potent antiviral cytokine, and jSLE has a strong IFNα transcriptional signature. Toll like receptors 7 and 9 (TLR7/9) sense viral RNA and DNA respectively, and trigger plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) to p...

Introduction: There are well described sex differences in the immune system. It has been shown in both innate and adaptive immunity that females have a more robust response than males. Various autoimmune diseases have a strong sex bias towards females. It is the accepted dogma that oestrogen in females relates to an increased risk of autoimmunity, but evidence to this end is scarce. Interferon alpha (IFNα) is a potent anti-viral innate cytokine, and many autoimmune diseas...

Prior to menopause, it is known that women have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and coronary heart disease compared to age-matched men; it is reported that women have around half the CVD risk and almost a 10-year delay in first myocardial infarction event compared to men. Sex differences in serum lipids could contribute to CVD risk through driving atherosclerosis, the buildup of lipids in the sub-endothelial intimal layer of medium-sized to large arteries. We hypo...

Introduction: Sex differences associated with inflammation have been observed across numerous autoimmune and cardiometabolic conditions. We aim ed to explore the differential impact of sex hormones/sex chromosomes on molecular pathways potentially relevant for immune cell functions using a unique post-pubertal transgender cohort.Methods: RNA-sequencing was performed on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from a he...

Background: Cis-gender females are known to mount stronger immune responses to invading pathogens or vaccines than cis-gender males. However, this is also associated with increased risk of autoimmunity. Little is known about the immunophenotypes of transgender individuals on gender-affirming hormonal treatment, despite growing evidence that hormones influence the immune system. Via the process of class-switch recombination (CSR), B-cell immunoglobulin isotype ...