The Flu Vaccine Is Little Effect On Men

The Flu Vaccine Is Little Effect On Men.
The flu vaccine is less impressive for men than women, and researchers at Stanford University suppose they've figured out why. The manly hormone testosterone causes genes in the immune arrangement to produce fewer antibodies, or defense mechanisms, in response to the vaccine, they found. "Men, typically, do worse than women in vaccinated response to infection and vaccination," said Stanford research affiliate David Furman, the lead study investigator.

For instance, men are more susceptible to bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic infection than women. And men's safe systems don't come back as robustly as women's to vaccinations against flu, yellow fever, measles, hepatitis and many other diseases. For the study, published online Dec 23, 2013 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers analyzed the blood of nearly 90 adults after they received a seasonal flu shot.

Men with the highest testosterone levels had the worst effect to the flu vaccine across the board. Testosterone is tied to immortal man's sensual characteristics, such as muscle strength, beard growth and risk-taking. "We found a set of genes in men that when activated caused a jinxed response to the vaccine, but were not involved in female response. Some of these genes are regulated by testosterone".

It's testosterone's accomplish on these genes that causes the poor vaccine response. "This has a lot of implications for vaccine development". Vaccine comeback might be better if men were given twice the dose, he suggested, or peradventure if testosterone levels were reduced. The whole picture isn't in effect clear or simple. Men's weaker response to the flu vaccine is only seen for some strains of flu.

So "We don't certain why". One expert doesn't think testosterone alone explains the characteristic in vaccine response between men and women. "There is more involved, but testosterone does affect the unaffected response," said Dr Alan Mensch, medical director at North Shore-LIJ Plainview Hospital in Plainview, NY Mensch doesn't feel it's necessary to increase vaccine doses for men. Rather, he thinks women can get by with a tone down dose.

And "There isn't a unlikeness in the amount of protection from flu. Women just don't need as much vaccine". In this study, which labyrinthine 53 women and 34 men, researchers found that, in general, women had a stronger antibody rejoinder to the vaccine. This was consistent with findings from other studies, the authors noted. However, men with insufficient testosterone levels had an antibody response similar to women.

Furman's team also noticed that the enterprise of certain genes in men, but not women, was associated with a weakened antibody response to the flu vaccine. When they looked at manful testosterone levels in relation to gene activity, they saw increased activation of the Module 52 genes in men with cheerful testosterone levels. This resulted in reduced antibody opus for the flu, the researchers concluded.

But in women, activation levels of Module 52 genes had no significant purpose on flu antibody levels, the study authors noted. Some Module 52 genes are known to be cognate to the immune system. The connections between these genes and testosterone might be a objective for further study and drug development.

One unanswered question is what evolutionary purpose is served by having testosterone connected to the exempt system. It's possible that an overly robust untouched response might be more dangerous than the disease itself. For example, women with their robust immune responses are twice as indubitably as men to die from infections that invade the blood system resources. So perhaps a somewhat less robust immune system can be lifesaving for men, he suggested.