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Gender-Specific Differences in Sex Hormones and Cytokines in Patients Undergoing Major Abdominal Surgery

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Abstract

Purpose

Experimental and clinical evidence suggests that gender has a profound influence on outcome after inflammatory hits caused by such events as trauma. We conducted this prospective clinical study to evaluate the influence of gender on the release of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the circulation and after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) ex vivo stimulation. We also measured the course of sex hormones in the acute phase response after surgery and assessed their correlation with cytokine release.

Methods

We measured the serum concentrations of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), testosterone, estradiol, prolactin, procalcitonin, and sex hormone-binding globulin, as well as the release of IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-10 after LPS ex vivo stimulation of whole blood in 26 patients without complications after major or minor abdominal surgery.

Results

There was a gender-specific pattern of decreasing testosterone concentrations in men and increasing testosterone concentrations in women. Increasing estradiol concentrations were seen in both men and women. The ex vivo-stimulated and systemic IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and TNF-α cytokine release was not gender specific. There was a marked prolactin peak after the induction of anesthesia before the commencement of surgery.

Conclusion

In contrast to the release of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, sex hormones show a gender-specific pattern during the acute phase response 1 week after abdominal surgery.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, University of the Saarland, Homburg, Germany

    Stefan Scheingraber

  2. Department of Surgery, Martin Luther University, Halle, Germany

    Stefan Scheingraber, Daniel Dobbert, Peter Schmiedel & Henning Dralle

  3. Departments of Obstetrics and Reproductive Medicine, Martin Luther University, Halle, Germany

    Ewald Seliger

Authors
  1. Stefan Scheingraber
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  2. Daniel Dobbert
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  3. Peter Schmiedel
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  4. Ewald Seliger
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  5. Henning Dralle
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Additional information

This paper was presented at the first joint meeting of the SIS-E and SIS North America, in Madrid, Spain, on May 4, 2002

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Scheingraber, S., Dobbert, D., Schmiedel, P. et al. Gender-Specific Differences in Sex Hormones and Cytokines in Patients Undergoing Major Abdominal Surgery. Surg Today 35, 846–854 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00595-005-3044-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00595-005-3044-1

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