The morphological and functional peculiarities of the immune system are studied in adult male and female Wistar rats with high and low hypoxic resistance. Sex-specific differences in the subpopulation composition of the peripheral blood lymphocytes, not depending on the hypoxic resistance of animals, are detected: the males have lower absolute counts of T helpers and higher percentage of regulatory T cells than the females in the diestrus phase. Comparison of the morphofunctional status of the immune system in male and female (diestrus) rats with high resistance to hypoxia has shown a better developed subcapsular zone of the thymus, higher levels of anti-inflammatory cytokine TGF-β, and lower absolute counts of cytotoxic T lymphocytes in the peripheral blood in the males. Males with low hypoxic resistance have higher counts of phase II thymic bodies in comparison with low-resistant females. Hence, morphofunctional differences in the immune system of male and female rats with different hypoxic resistance are detected, which can determine the course of inflammatory diseases.
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Translated from Byulleten’ Eksperimental’noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 169, No. 6, pp. 773-778, June, 2020
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Dzhalilova, D.S., Kosyreva, A.M., Tsvetkov, I.S. et al. Morphological and Functional Peculiarities of the Immune System of Male and Female Rats with Different Hypoxic Resistance. Bull Exp Biol Med 169, 825–830 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10517-020-04989-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10517-020-04989-1