Transcript – Gender Differences in Sepsis Survival Involve Effects of Gonadal Steroid Hormones and Activation of Inflammatory Pathways that Contribute to Disease Progression

Sepsis is a complex clinical condition that results from the inability of the host to regulate inflammatory responses against infection and trauma and results in severe adverse outcomes such as circulatory shock, organ dysfunction and death. Studies collectively suggest that the male sex and age are both risk factors for the development of sepsis and multiple organ failure following trauma. However, the precise mechanisms that contributed to the progression of this disease or to sex differences in the disease remain ill-defined. Thus, in the present study, we examine survival following the onset of sepsis, using the cecal ligation and puncture model, and we compared intact males and females as well as males and females that had been previously castrated or overegg demised respectively. Our findings reveal that there was a much higher survival in males than in females, however, in both males and females, castration or overectomy increased nearly doubled the survival in both sexes. Likewise, septic males have the highest fibrotic and collagen percentages in their livers, indicating that sepsis had a greater effect on the males than in the females. Inflammatory mediators and cytokines were upregulated with allegation, ligation, puncture and sepsis both in COP and CLB got an activist. Groups, however, that go to victimized groups showed a decreased expression for some of these inflammatory mediators, underscoring a direct link was between sepsis and sex hormones in the survival of this disease and in fact reducing the expression of these cytokines appeared to improve the survival following the induction of sepsis.