Figure 9

When alterations occur in the pathways of the gender-specific cytokines, the consequences for men and women are different, in terms of disease development. This event is related to the impairment of the immune system homeostasis, because the alterations of gender-specific cytokine pathways cause a pathologic polarization of specific T cell types, different for each gender. The reason of this fact is related to the different effects generated by IFNγ and IL6 cytokines, that are present in the cellular environment, on the generation of Th cell subtypes during the immune response.