A Study in Mice Offers Clues to How Obesity Differs in Men and Women

Résumé détaillé

The reason obesity affects men and women differently may come down to immune cells, a UC Riverside mouse study suggests.

Previous studies have indicated that obesity affects men and women differently. Now, a new animal-based study may have found a potential explanation for why that's the case.

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, found that, in mice, the difference could partially come down to a certain kind of immune cell, one which they found behaved differently in male and female mice.

The experts said this finding could challenge the traditionally held assumption that eosinophils, a type of white blood cell involved in fighting parasites, bacteria and allergens, are uniform between men and women, and potentially offer new possibilities for more targeted treatment.

"The main takeaway is that biological sex plays a fundamental role in shaping how immune cells function, meaning male and female immune systems cannot be treated as identical," study author Meera Nair, a professor of biomedical sciences at the University of California Riverside, told Newsweek.

She added that immune cells like eosinophils may be "flexible" as "their function and gene expression profiles are responsive to their surrounding tissue environment, biological sex, and external factors like infections."

"Ultimately, our metabolic health is dictated by how immune cells behave inside our fat tissue, providing the opportunity to target and reprogram them for better outcomes," she said.

Research has previously identified that while women tend to show higher overall prevalence of obesity, men are more susceptible to fat accumulation deep in the abdomen (what is known as visceral fat), which increases risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and other complications.

Some explanations for this have included the role the hormone estrogen plays in fat storage in women, differences in gut microbiome, as well as sociocultural factors like body image perception and healthcare-seeking behavior.

The researchers found that in the mice studied, there were six distinct clusters of eosinophils in adipose (fat)…

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