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Testosterone treats allergies and inflammation
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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Scientists have long known that men suffer less from inflammatory diseases than women. However, it was only thanks to the latest research that Dr. Carlo Pergola from the Pharmaceutical Institute of the University of Jena discovered how important sex hormones are in this regard.
He proved that testosterone makes men less susceptible to diseases involving inflammation and allergies. The researchers specifically checked in the course of analyses how male and female cells react differently to the inflammatory stimulus. Thus, female immune cells produced almost twice as many inflammatory substances as similar cells in men.
To find out why this pattern occurred, the researchers isolated male and female immune cells and tested the activity of enzymes responsible for producing inflammatory substances in a test tube. In male cells, the enzyme phospholipase D was less active than in female cells. However, when testosterone was added to the female cells, the activity decreased.
From this it was concluded that male sex hormones are extremely important in terms of modulating the immune response. This point also explains the fact that testosterone can protect a man from arteriosclerosis.