Testosterone may help protect men against asthma, according to a paper published Tuesday in [style=font-style:italic;]Cell Reports.[/style] The scientists looked at a protein involved in lung inflammation and found that testosterone decreased its production, at least in mouse cells in the lab. Estrogen and progesterone didn't have a significant impact. The research was funded by grants from the National Institute of Health and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Sex hormones have been suspected because in childhood, boys have higher rates of asthma than girls. That risk flips in adulthood. "This change occurs around puberty, making us interested in how sex hormones are regulating inflammation with asthma," says Dawn Newcomb, the lead author of the study and a research assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University.
Other studies in lab animals have shown that that estrogen increases airway inflammation and testosterone decreases it, but of course that doesn't mean the same thing is happening in people. Still, this study is one of a growing number suggesting that hormones are a factor with asthma in adults.
To investigate, Newcomb and her team looked at blood samples from women and men with and without asthma. They looked at cells that help make proteins involved in lung inflammation and mucus creation and found that women with asthma had twice the number of circulating ILC2 cells in their blood compared to men with the disease. They then found that adding testosterone to ILC2 cells reduced the cell's creation of proteins that lead to lung inflammation. Adding estrogen and progesterone, which are produced in women's ovaries, had no significant impact.
"Testosterone May Help Protect Men From Asthma," WPSU, Public Media for Central Pennsylvania.
Sex hormones have been suspected because in childhood, boys have higher rates of asthma than girls. That risk flips in adulthood. "This change occurs around puberty, making us interested in how sex hormones are regulating inflammation with asthma," says Dawn Newcomb, the lead author of the study and a research assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University.
Other studies in lab animals have shown that that estrogen increases airway inflammation and testosterone decreases it, but of course that doesn't mean the same thing is happening in people. Still, this study is one of a growing number suggesting that hormones are a factor with asthma in adults.
To investigate, Newcomb and her team looked at blood samples from women and men with and without asthma. They looked at cells that help make proteins involved in lung inflammation and mucus creation and found that women with asthma had twice the number of circulating ILC2 cells in their blood compared to men with the disease. They then found that adding testosterone to ILC2 cells reduced the cell's creation of proteins that lead to lung inflammation. Adding estrogen and progesterone, which are produced in women's ovaries, had no significant impact.
"Testosterone May Help Protect Men From Asthma," WPSU, Public Media for Central Pennsylvania.
