Sexual Dimorphism in the Immune System

Sexual dimorphism is the term that refers to differences between males and females of the same species, and is most obvious as differences in external appearances. However, there can also be sexual dimorphism of internal organs and biological functions, including the immune system. Sexual dimorphism in the immune system is important in medicine because it can lead to sex differences in the responses to infection and vaccination and sex differences in the development of autoimmune disease. This chapter focuses on the effects of sexual dimorphism on immunocompetence, and on some of the possible mechanisms underlying these effects, including the effects of the sex hormones, sex chromosomes, and sexually-dimorphic cultural and environmental effects on immunity. The possible consequences for autoimmunity of sexual dimorphism in the immune system are also considered.

• Publication year

  2020

• Venue

  Autoimmune Diseases

• Publication date

  Unknown publication date

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/B978-0-12-384929-8.00024-1
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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