Sex Hormones Contribute to Sex Differences in COVID-19

Article title: Sex steroids skew ACE2 expression in human airway: a contributing factor to sex differences in COVID-19?

Authors: Rama Satyanarayana Raju Kalidhindi, Niyati A. Borkar, Nilesh Sudhakar Ambhore, Christina M. Pabelick, Y. S. Prakash, Venkatachalem Sathish

From the authors: “Female patients show downregulated baseline ACE2 expression compared with males, which may reflect elevated circulating [estrogen] concentrations in females. Perhaps more interestingly, [testosterone] significantly upregulated ACE2 expression in human [airway smooth muscle] cells.”

This study is highlighted as one of December’s "best of the best" as part of the American Physiological Society's APSselect program.