Women are more susceptible to infections than men due to genetic differences.

Women are easier than men to tolerate many infections due to increased activity of the KDM6A gene, copies of which are located on the “female” X chromosomes. The discovery will help develop more effective treatments that will take this feature into account. When female mice were artificially down-regulated with the KDM6A gene, they became just as vulnerable to infections as males. At the same time, the concentration of female or male sex hormones did not affect the activity of UTX in rodent lymphocytes. This means that the nature of the differences is genetic.