WIKIMEDIA, RAMAStudying immune cell signaling in mice, researchers from the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands found notable sex differences in how the animals responded to viral infection. Female rodents that lacked the immune receptor CD200 were better able to fight off certain viruses than males, according to research presented Saturday (June 18) at the American Society for Microbiology’s annual meeting in Boston.
“A healthy immune system must be in balance,” study researcher Linde Meyaard of the UMC Utrecht said while presenting the results at the meeting. Too little response leads to infections; too much results in inflammatory disease, she said.
In a 2012 study, Meyaard and colleagues conducted several experiments with knockout mice that lacked the CD200 receptor, which acts as an inhibitory immunological “checkpoint.” Mice that lacked this receptor had a strong type I interferon (IFN) response. When the researchers infected these mice with murine hepatitis corona virus (MHV), which is normally highly fatal, the animals rapidly cleared the virus—particularly the females. But the mice also experienced more symptoms of autoimmune disease, the researchers found.
Fighting MHV is known to depend on Toll like receptor 7 ...
