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Women tend to have a greater immune response to a flu vaccination compared to men, but their advantage largely disappears as they age and their estrogen levels decline, suggests a study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The researchers, whose study appears July 12 in the journal npj Vaccines, evaluated responses to the flu vaccine in 50 adults age 18-45 years and 95 adults age 65 and older, and found that the women in the younger group had a stronger immune response compared to the older women and all men. Experiments in mice yielded similar results, and suggested that estrogen -- levels of which lessen with age in females -- boosts females' immune responses to flu vaccines, while testosterone lowers males' responses. The scientists expect that their results will be generalizable to other vaccines.
The researchers, whose study appears July 12 in the journal npj Vaccines, evaluated responses to the flu vaccine in 50 adults age 18-45 years and 95 adults age 65 and older, and found that the women in the younger group had a stronger immune response compared to the older women and all men. Experiments in mice yielded similar results, and suggested that estrogen -- levels of which lessen with age in females -- boosts females' immune responses to flu vaccines, while testosterone lowers males' responses. The scientists expect that their results will be generalizable to other vaccines.
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