In the event of a nuclear disaster, gender equity in health care is urgently needed. Understanding the different responses of males and females to severe radiation exposure can lead to more effective treatment. Preclinical research by Chandan Guha, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., and colleagues suggests that male mice experience higher mortality following radiation exposure compared with female mice.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has awarded Dr. Guha a three-year, $1.89 million grant to better understand how sex influences radiation injuries and their treatment, focusing on hematopoietic acute radiation syndrome (affecting the blood and bone marrow), gastrointestinal acute radiation syndrome (affecting the digestive system) and radiation-induced immune dysfunction. The researchers will assess immediate and long-term effects of radiation exposure, survival rates, tissue health, metabolic changes, regeneration of the immune system, and gene activity in four groups of mice following radiation exposure: normal mice, mice with removed gonads; the four core genotypes mouse model, in which the effects of sex hormones are separate from the effects sex chromosomes; and mice with altered IL-33 activity. (The protein IL-33 signals damage in the body and activates differently in males and females following injury.) The researchers hope to gain insights into sex-specific responses to radiation and develop treatments for radiation-induced disease that take sex differences into account. The findings may also suggest whether gender-based differences are present in the innate immune system of humans.

Dr. Guha is professor and vice chair of radiation oncology at Einstein and Montefiore, professor of urology and of pathology at Einstein, and associate director of innovation/tech transfer at the National Cancer Institute-designated Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center. (1U01AI183947-01)