Sex hormone deprivation abolishes sex‐specific differences in murine colon inflammation and related lipid mediator production

Abstract

Unresolved inflammation, due to unfavorable imbalances between pro‐inflammatory and pro‐resolving mediators, leads to chronic inflammatory pathologies that are often sex‐biased and regulated by sex hormones, including inflammatory bowel disease. Lipid mediators (LM) produced from polyunsaturated fatty acids by various lipoxygenases (LOX) and cyclooxygenases govern all stages of inflammation, i.e., the initiation and progression by pro‐inflammatory eicosanoids and its resolution by specialized pro‐resolving mediators (SPM). Here, we reveal sex‐specific differences in murine experimental colitis with male preponderance, which was abolished by sex hormone deprivation using gonadectomy, and this correlated to the levels of inflammation‐relevant mediators in the colon. Oral dextran sodium sulfate administration caused more severe colon inflammation in male CD‐1 mice than in female counterparts during the acute phase. Colitis in males yielded higher colonic cytokine/chemokine levels but lower 12−/15‐LOX‐derived LM including SPM compared to female animals in the resolving phase. Sex hormone deprivation in male mice by orchidectomy ameliorated colitis and impaired pro‐inflammatory cytokine/chemokine levels but elevated 12−/15‐LOX products including SPM, thus abolishing the observed sex differences. Conversely, ovariectomy impaired the levels of those LM that dominated in females and that were increased in males after gonadectomy. Our findings suggest that male sex hormones promote the development of colitis connected to the biosynthesis of inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and certain LM, especially pro‐resolving 12−/15‐LOX products that appear to be suppressed in the male colon due to androgens.