| Zusammenfassung: | Abstract In previous studies, carried out in humans, we showed that females are resistant to Leishmania mexicana infection. We also showed that 17β‐estradiol (E2) induces killing of parasites inside of murine macrophages. In this work, we compared, for the first time, L mexicana survival inside of male (male BMDM) and female (female BMDM) bone marrow‐derived macrophages (BMDM) treated in vitro with E2 or dihydrotestosterone (DHT). We also compared their levels of nitric oxide (NO), interleukin (IL)‐6, IL‐10, IL‐12p70 and tumour necrosis factor (TNF‐α). We found that female BMDM are a lot less susceptible to infection as compared with male BMDM. 17β‐estradiol induced killing of most parasites inside of female BMDM. Dihydrotestosterone, on the other hand, induced some parasite killing inside of some infected male BMDM. Interleukin‐6 levels were higher in female BMDM treated with either hormone. Neither TNF‐α nor IL‐10 levels showed significant differences compared with sham controls. Interestingly IL‐12p70 was more abundantly produced by sham female BMDM as compared with sham male BMDM. Only female BMDM treated with E2 trigger a robust IL‐12p70 production, but it was significantly reduced in male BMDM. This suggests IL‐12p70 is an important factor in female‐macrophage resistance to L mexicana parasites.
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