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- Title
Testosterone and Immune Function in Primates: A Brief Summary with Methodological Considerations.
- Authors
Prall, Sean; Muehlenbein, Michael
- Abstract
The endocrine system serves as a mediator by which the body integrates environmental cues to organize physiological alterations, including changes in immunocompetence. Hormones are central mechanisms that contribute to the onset and timing of key life history events, the allocation of time and energy between competing functions, and in general modulate phenotypic development and variation. Here we provide a very brief review of testosterone and immunity, which highlights the physiological costs that elevated testosterone levels can incur as a result of reproductive investments. We focus primarily on nonhuman primates where possible. Although there is substantial evidence that testosterone exerts some influences on immune responses, results from in vivo studies involving human and nonhuman primates have yielded equivocal results regarding such immunomodulatory actions. There may be several reasons for this, including variation in study design, immunological measures used, levels of other hormones present, host energy status, and even social conditions. We therefore review some of these potential methodological issues, concluding that increased care must be taken to analyze seasonal variability in energy budgets, to collect an adequate number of samples from known individuals, to account for status in the dominance hierarchy when applicable, and to use multiple measures of immunity. We must also seek to understand the collaborative effects of multiple hormones (particularly dehydroepiandrosterone and estradiol) with relation to their downstream immunological effects, assessing both individual and multiplicative actions in both males and females. Such efforts would benefit from the development of additional noninvasive immune measures for primates.
- Subjects
TESTOSTERONE; IMMUNE response; ANIMAL behavior endocrinology; PRIMATE physiology; DEHYDROEPIANDROSTERONE; PRIMATE reproduction
- Publication
International Journal of Primatology, 2014, Vol 35, Issue 3/4, p805
- ISSN
0164-0291
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s10764-014-9752-x