Novel insights into the sexual dimorphism-associated immune response

In their recent article in Science,Chi et al.[1]characterized a mechanism that regulates tissue/organ-specific immunity in mice.Their findings revealed that the androgen type 2 innate lymphoid cell-dendritic cell axis played a prominent role in a microbiota-and sex hormone-dependent manner.These observations implicate sexual immune dimorphism as a molecular,cellular and tissue/organ-specific regulatory hub for the(im)balance between health and disease.Environmental factors,including nutritional status,diet,vital light-dark rhythms(i.e.,circadian and infradian rhythms)and the microbiota,shape the development and function of the immune system differently in males and females,which can result in differences in susceptibility to autoimmune diseases,malignancies and infectious diseases and affect the outcome of vaccination[3](Fig.1).