为什么女性比男性更易得哮喘

Well now, here's an example of gender bias entirely ?configured by Mother Nature - women are more likely than men to get asthma because we lack the protection of the male ?hormone testosterone .

额，这完全是一个由大自然构成的性别偏见的例子--女性比男性更容易患哮喘，这是因为我们缺乏男性激素睾酮的保护。

We also have more of a particular immune cell which responds to inflammation by producing mucus, leading to coughing and wheezing. Turns out testosterone blocks these injurious immune cells and thereby the development of asthma.

我们体内的特定免疫细胞也更多，这些细胞通过分泌粘液来响应炎症，导致咳嗽和哮鸣。原来睾酮会阻断这些有害的免疫细胞，从而预防哮喘。

The testosterone which floods male bodies at puberty is thought to protect them, so that they're then less likely to have asthma than women. Female sex hormones don't protect against asthma. But there is an upside.

人们认为，青春期男性体内流动的睾酮会保护他们，所以他们患哮喘的可能性比女性更低。女性雌激素不能预防哮喘，但也有一个好处。

Senior author Dr Dawn Newcomb, from the University of Vanderbilt, US, said: "Our findings may help develop a treatment for women's asthma."

资深作者、美国范德比尔特大学博士道恩·纽科姆说道："我们的研究结果或有助于找到治疗女性哮喘的方法。"

Dr Samantha Walker of Asthma UK said: "While we have known for some time that women are more likely to have asthma than men, this study is promising because it gives us a deeper understanding of the part that hormones play in the condition.

Asthma UK的萨曼莎·沃克说道："虽然我们知道女性比男性更易患哮喘已经有些日子了，但这项研究很有希望，因为它让我们更深入的了解激素在这种情况下扮演的角色。"

"But this new study goes one step further in identifying a cell which is more prevalent in women with asthma. It also suggests that some hormones can suppress these cells and, in the future, they could be used to help people with asthma."

"但这项新研究更近一步，确定了女性哮喘患者体内更普遍的细胞。同时也表明，有些激素会抑制这些细胞，在未来，这些细胞可被用于帮助哮喘患者。"

The research, led by Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Tennessee, also helps to explain why young boys are more likely to have asthma than girls but only until their teenage years. The US researchers collected blood samples from 21 people of both sexes with and without asthma to discover that women had more of a type of lung cell called ICL2.

这项由田纳西州范德比尔特大学医学中心领导的研究也有助于解释为什么年轻的男孩儿比女孩儿更容易患哮喘，但只是在他们的青少年时期。美国研究人员采集了21位男女的血样，他们中有些人患有哮喘，有些人没有哮喘，并发现女性有更多叫做ICL2类型的肺细胞。

These cells are responsible for an abnormal overreaction of the immune system which causes asthma. They do so by producing inflammatory proteins called cytokines, which make it harder to breathe.

这些细胞会导致免疫系统的异常过度反应，从而导致哮喘。它们通过分泌叫做细胞因子的炎性蛋白而达到这一目的，这会造成呼吸困难。

Mice also have these cells and when researchers fed the animals containing testosterone, they found their ICL2 cells produced fewer of these proteins. When female sex hormones like oestrogen and progesterone were used on the mouse cells, they had no protective effect.

小鼠也含有这些细胞，当研究人员喂养含有睾酮的动物时，他们发现动物体内的ICL2细胞分泌的细胞因子蛋白更少。当雌性性激素（比如雌激素和孕激素）也被用于小鼠细胞时，它们没有任何保护作用。