The Hyper-Immune Human Female: The Etiologic Role of Sleep Deprivation, Early Pregnancy Factor, Lactation and Woodsmoke Stressors

Abstract

Numerous studies have unequivocally established that the human female has a superior immunity to the human male. This phenomenon is known as sexual dimorphism of the human immune response. Human females display a superior cellular and humoral immune response and are more resistant to a variety of infections compared to the human male (Bouman et al. 2005). Evidence for the basis of this dramatic differential in the sex specific steroid hormones estrogen and testosterone has been provided in several studies. It appears in this regard that the superior immunity of the female is directly owed to higher levels of estrogen and indirectly to lower levels of the androgen hormone testosterone. This is corroborated by several independent clinical experimental studies, which clearly demonstrate the immunosuppressive effects of the androgenic hormones (Luster et al. 1985; Roubinian et al. 1979; Waynforth et al. 1980). In addition, there is experimental evidence for the fact that females possess higher serum immunoglobulin levels compared with males (Sakans et al. 1978). Corroborative evidence gathered from other species demonstrates that estradiol enhances antibody production in vivo while testosterone depresses B and T cell differentiation and macrophage activation (Rai 1998; Wichmann et al. 1997). Pathological studies also directly and dramatically demonstrate the immunosuppressive effects of the sex specific androgens testosterone and dihydrotestosterone. For Cutolo et al. (2002) it has been shown in both male and female patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (an autoimmune disease provoked and progressed by an excessively active immune system) that there is a marked lowering of the androgen:estrogen ratio.