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MINI REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Microbial Immunology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1556683
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Impact of Sex and Gender in Disease Diagnostics in Global HealthView all 6 articles
Estrogen and bacterial infection
Provisionally accepted- 1Shandong First Medical University, Tai'an, China
- 2Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong Province, China
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Gender differences exist in the susceptibility, incidence, progression, and prognosis of bacterial infections in males and females, influenced by various factors including lifestyle and habits. Multiple reports have indicated that estrogen plays a crucial immunomodulatory role in many pathogenic microbial infections, highlighting a complex relationship between estrogen, its receptors, and bacterial infections. Estrogen and its receptors regulate host immune responses, affecting the host's ability to clear bacteria and thus influencing the likelihood and difficulty of infection eradication. Variations in estrogen levels may lead to differences in the occurrence and progression of bacterial infections, with estrogen playing varied roles in diseases caused by the same bacterial pathogens. The interaction between estrogen and bacterial infections represents a complex and crucial aspect of human physiology and clinical medicine. Understanding this interaction is essential for advancing infection prevention and treatment strategies. This article reviews the correlation and mechanisms between estrogen and bacterial infections, emphasizing the importance of further research in this field.
Keywords: estrogen, Bacterial infection, sex difference, immune response, molecular mechanism
Received: 07 Jan 2025; Accepted: 11 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 LONG YAN, Liang, Man, Zhao and Guo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Pengbo Guo, Shandong First Medical University, Tai'an, China
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