Mucosal-associated invariant T cell responses differ by sex in COVID-19.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Sexual dimorphisms in immune responses contribute to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes, but the mechanisms governing this disparity remain incompletely understood.

Methods

We carried out sex-balanced sampling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from hospitalized and non-hospitalized individuals with confirmed COVID-19, uninfected close contacts, and healthy control individuals for 36-color flow cytometry and single-cell RNA sequencing.

Findings

Our results revealed a pronounced reduction of circulating mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells in infected females. Integration of published COVID-19 airway tissue datasets suggests that this reduction represented a major wave of MAIT cell extravasation during early infection in females. Moreover

SUBMITTER: Yu C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8043578 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature