Women have a much lower prevalence of acute psoriasis, which is a skin disorder that may produce rashes and can lead to irritation. This is in contrast to males, who have a considerably higher incidence. However, the fundamental explanation for the sex variations that make males more susceptible to this ailment has, up until this point, remained unknown.
Psoriasis may be controlled, according to a group of experts, by the hormone estradiol, which is produced by females. According to a press statement issued by Kyoto University, the protective action of the hormone has established a foundation for its possible use in therapy. The findings of the research were presented in a paper that was reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
The study
Human females have a substantially smaller incidence of severe psoriasis than human males. At least, this is the case when it comes to terrible skin inflammation. However, the fundamental explanation for the variations between the sexes has remained a mystery up until this point. The researchers conducted experiments using conditional knockout mice, often known as cko mice. These mice had certain genes deleted from or inactivated in them.
In this experiment, the mice had their ovaries taken, and they were given pellets of estradiol as a replacement. In comparison to wild-type mice, cko mice, who lack the natural ovarian hormone estradiol, exhibited indications of severe skin inflammation. This was due to the absence of estradiol.
When estradiol was administered to these mice, the immune cells completely halted their production of cytokines, which resulted in a significant decrease in inflammation. This impact was seen in human cells when they were cultured in vitro as well.
The fact that immune cells lacked the estrogen receptors necessary for estradiol to be efficient against cytokines was something that piqued the interest of the researchers. According to these findings, estradiol is able to reduce psoriatic inflammation via controlling the number of neutrophils and macrophages in the body.
