Katharina Buczek
During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, cases of infection throughout the United States impacted both men and women at comparable rates. However, there was a notable gender gap in terms of mortality.
According to a Gender COVID-19 Data Tracker developed in 2020 by GenderSci Lab, which looked at 30 million cases between April 2020 and May 2021, males in the U.S. had a 10 to 20 percent higher mortality rate than females– a finding that prompted many scientists to begin researching the cause of the mortality disparity.
But, as of last month, a researcher from the Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) in New Jersey may have found some answers.
Jyothi Nagajyothi is a scientist who investigates infectious diseases in relation to body fat, which includes COVID-19.
And in a recent study published in MDPI, Nagajyothi’s research team suggested the reason why males suffer worse COVID-19 outcomes is that the virus more readily targets fat tissue in females as opposed to lung tissue.
“Our data suggested that in female mice, adipose tissue may act as a sink/reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 and thus spares the lungs from a greater viral load, preventing pulmonary damage due to infiltrated immune cells and activated pro-inflammatory cytokines,” the study states.
In other words, the study used a mouse model to mimic the human immune system and found that COVID-19-infected females actually lost more fat than males. Additionally, males were found to have more virus in their lung tissue; meanwhile, females had more virus in fat tissue.
So, the researchers believe that adipose tissue– otherwise known as fat– may act as a reservoir for the virus and prevent it from severely damaging lung tissue.
This research expands on a prior study from last year, in which Nagajyothi found that COVID-19 much more rapidly infiltrates the lungs of males as opposed to females.
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