Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society
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The Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society 6:724-727 (2009)
© 2009 The American Thoracic Society
doi: 10.1513/pats.200906-054DP
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All Men Are Created Equal?

New Leads in Explaining Sex Differences in Adult Asthma

Barbro N. Melgert1 and Dirkje S. Postma2

1 Department of Pathology and 2 Department of Pulmonology, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to B. N. Melgert, Ph.D., University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Pathology, Division of Medical Biology, P.O. Box 30001, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands. E-mail: BNMelgert{at}mac.com

ABSTRACT

The incidence of asthma has a strong sex bias. Asthma not only occurs more frequently among adult women in the reproductive years of their lives, but adult females also exhibit a more severe form of asthma. However, we are still far from explaining why these differences occur and using them to our advantage when treating patients. Women are still underrepresented in most clinical trials investigating new drugs, yet knowledge of their responses to drugs in asthma is essential in developing optimal treatments for both men and women. Sex hormones undoubtedly play a major role in the differences between male and female asthma, but little is known about how sex hormones affect the pathogenesis of asthma and what their targets are. It therefore seems prudent to first uncover in what ways asthma differs in men and women before embarking on trying to elucidate how sex hormones affect these processes. Understanding the mechanisms involved will eventually also improve treatment options for both men and women.

Key Words: innate immunity • sex differences • sex hormones • macrophages • allergy






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