In previous studies, carried out in humans, we showed that females are resistant to Leishmania mexicana infection. We also showed that 17β-estradiol (E2) induces killing of parasites inside of murine macrophages. In this work, we compared, for the first time, L mexicana survival inside of male (male BMDM) and female (female BMDM) bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDM) treated in vitro with E2 or dihydrotestosterone (DHT). We also compared their levels of nitric oxide (NO), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, IL-12p70 and tumour necrosis factor (TNF-α). We found that female BMDM are a lot less susceptible to infection as compared with male BMDM. 17β-estradiol induced killing of most parasites inside of female BMDM. Dihydrotestosterone, on the other hand, induced some parasite killing inside of some infected male BMDM. Interleukin-6 levels were higher in female BMDM treated with either hormone. Neither TNF-α nor IL-10 levels showed significant differences compared with sham controls. Interestingly IL-12p70 was more abundantly produced by sham female BMDM as compared with sham male BMDM. Only female BMDM treated with E2 trigger a robust IL-12p70 production, but it was significantly reduced in male BMDM. This suggests IL-12p70 is an important factor in female-macrophage resistance to L mexicana parasites.

中文翻译：

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细胞因子调节女性巨噬细胞对墨西哥利什曼原虫寄生虫的抵抗力。IL-12p70的作用。

在先前的人类研究中，我们表明雌性对墨西哥利什曼原虫具有抗性。我们还表明17β-雌二醇（E2）诱导杀死小鼠巨噬细胞内的寄生虫。在这项工作中，我们首次比较了用E2或二氢睾丸激素（DHT）体外处理的男性（男性BMDM）和女性（女性BMDM）骨髓源性巨噬细胞（BMDM）内部的墨西哥墨西哥存活。我们还比较了它们的一氧化氮（NO），白介素（IL）-6，IL-10，IL-12p70和肿瘤坏死因子（TNF-α）的水平。我们发现，与男性BMDM相比，女性BMDM更不容易受到感染。17β-雌二醇诱导杀死女性BMDM中的大多数寄生虫。另一方面，二氢睾丸激素在某些受感染的雄性BMDM体内诱发了一些寄生虫杀害。用任何一种激素治疗的女性BMDM中，白细胞介素6水平较高。与假对照组相比，TNF-α和IL-10水平均未显示出显着差异。有趣的是，与假男性BMDM相比，假女性BMDM更大量产生IL-12p70。仅用E2处理的雌性BMDM触发了强大的IL-12p70产生，但雄性BMDM明显降低。这表明IL-12p70是雌性巨噬细胞对墨西哥梅毒的抗性的重要因素。