Table_5_Sex Differences in Older Adults' Immune Responses to Seasonal Influenza Vaccination.XLSX

Background: Sex differences in immune responses to influenza vaccine may impact efficacy across populations.
Methods: In a cohort of 138 older adults (50–74 years old), we measured influenza A/H1N1 antibody titers, B-cell ELISPOT response, PBMC transcriptomics, and PBMC cell compositions at 0, 3, and 28 days post-immunization with the 2010/11 seasonal inactivated influenza vaccine.
Results: We identified higher B-cell ELISPOT responses in females than males. Potential mechanisms for sex effects were identified in four gene clusters related to T, NK, and B cells. Mediation analysis indicated that sex-dependent expression in T and NK cell genes can be partially attributed to higher CD4+ T cell and lower NK cell fractions in females. We identified strong sex effects in 135 B cell genes whose expression correlates with ELISPOT measures, and found that cell subset differences did not explain the effect of sex on these genes' expression. Post-vaccination expression of these genes, however, mediated 41% of the sex effect on ELISPOT responses.
Conclusions: These results improve our understanding of sexual dimorphism in immunity and influenza vaccine response.

研究背景：机体对流感疫苗的免疫应答存在性别差异，这可能影响不同人群的疫苗保护效力。
研究方法：本研究纳入138名50~74岁的老年成人队列，在接种2010/11季节性灭活流感疫苗后的第0、3、28天，检测了受试者的甲型流感病毒A/H1N1抗体滴度、B细胞酶联免疫斑点（Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSpot, ELISPOT）应答、外周血单个核细胞（Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cell, PBMC）转录组学特征以及PBMC细胞组分。
研究结果：本研究发现女性的B细胞ELISPOT应答水平显著高于男性。我们在与T细胞、自然杀伤细胞（Natural Killer Cell, NK）及B细胞相关的4个基因簇中，揭示了性别差异效应的潜在作用机制。中介分析表明，T细胞与NK细胞基因的性别依赖性表达，可部分归因于女性体内更高的CD4+ T细胞比例与更低的NK细胞比例。我们在135个表达水平与ELISPOT检测结果相关的B细胞基因中，发现了显著的性别差异效应，且细胞亚群比例差异无法解释性别对这些基因表达的调控作用。然而，这些基因在疫苗接种后的表达水平，介导了41%的性别差异对ELISPOT应答的影响。
研究结论：本研究结果加深了我们对免疫应答与流感疫苗应答中性别二态性的认知。