thank you so much Darragh :) @darraghduffy.bsky.social

We are also super happy with the collaboration Mauricio! Cheers to this excellent work!

Decoding sex differences in immunity through systems immunology is an important direction to extend our understanding beyond binary (M vs W) and towards biological mechanisms of immune regulation, which can pave the way for tailored, sex- and gender-informed treatments.

Further studies will be key to answer such questions and improve care for trans people, who are currently underrepresented and underserved in medicine.

This work opens new questions, such as *how* can estrogen therapy shift immune function? Are these changes mediated by direct effects on immune cells or progenitors or via other intermediates? And could such immune shifts impact responses to infection and outcomes?

Very happy that our lab (w/ @resabut.bsky.social leading systems-level analyses) contributed to this important collaborative work!

- Yet, humoral and cellular vaccine responses remained unchanged by estrogen therapy

- RNAseq indicated a shift in immune function towards increased lymphocyte responses (T & NK cells) and decreased innate and myeloid responses (TLR, IFNs, monocytes and neutrophils) during FHT. Interestingly, this remained significant even after immune perturbation with an mRNA vaccine and boost

✨ Highlights
- Exogenous estrogen therapy induced many changes in blood cell counts and chemical profiles, including lower albumin and red blood cells and increased platelet counts