Differences in immunity in males and females throughout the life span manifest as differences in susceptibility to chronic diseases, infections, cancer, and responses to therapeutic interventions such as immunomodulatory drugs and vaccines. Sex steroids and sex chromosome-linked immune response genes have major roles in driving these differences, but the cells and signaling pathways governing these are disease-specific and often not known. Such knowledge is required to better understand sex differences in disease incidence and clinical course, and to provide treatments tailored to sex-divergent pathways underlying specific diseases. This Essay explores the major areas where further research is required to determine sex-differential mechanisms.
Flanagan et al. (2026) studied this question.