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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- New research reveals testosterone may be a key factor when it comes to spreading diseases. The study was done in mice, but researchers say the findings help explain why males are more likely to get infected and transmit disease.
Testosterone is the male sex hormone. Previous studies have linked testosterone to immune system suppression. Researchers from Penn State say while they know testosterone makes males more susceptible to disease, they also wanted to understand if it affects their behavior and how that increases their ability to transmit disease.
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For the study, investigators raised the testosterone levels in wild mice and then measured the disease risk they posed to the population. They treated 24 male mice trapped in five sites. Twenty-five other male mice received sham implants and mice at three other sites received neither treatment. All sites were trapped twice a week for six weeks before and after treatment. All of the mice were electronically tagged to see where they were trapped. This gave researchers a good picture of how the treated and untreated mice mixed over time.
Study authors say they found the mice were mixing more when the testosterone treated mice were present. These findings suggest that even if some individuals in a population have high levels of testosterone, they can impact the behavior of those around, and drive the transmission of diseases transmitted by close contact such as the respiratory pathogen bordetella, says Daniel Grear, Penn State doctoral student in ecology.
SOURCE: Presented at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 8, 2008
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