Asthma in Women: Lessons Learned from Clinical and Animal Studies

The Women’s Health Seminar Series features multidisciplinary research on women’s health. The goal of the series is to provide multidisciplinary training and mentorship to faculty, students, and community members across a broad range of women’s health research topics. Speakers will present their research regarding the biological, psychological, behavioural, economic and social impacts on women’s health outcomes through a 45 minute talk and engage with attendees in an interactive 15 minute question and answer period. The series is open to anyone interested in attending!

Presenter: Dr. Patricia Silveyra, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Indiana University Bloomington

Talk Summary: Asthma is a lung disease caused by exaggerated lung inflammation leading to airway obstruction and compromised airflow. Despite significant advances in its diagnosis and treatment, asthma continues to be a significant health problem affecting more than 300 million patients around the world. Epidemiological studies have indicated that starting around puberty and peaking during mid-life, women have an increased prevalence of asthma compared to men, and adult women have a higher rate of asthma exacerbations than men. The causes of these disparities remain unclear; however, studies have shown that sex-specific inflammatory mechanisms regulated by hormones contribute to differences in airway reactivity in response to allergens and environmental stimuli. My laboratory uses experimental models of allergic asthma to explore the contributions of sex hormones to inflammatory mechanisms. In this talk I will give an overview of the epidemiology of asthma across the life span and show results from our studies using mouse models showing sex differences in allergic asthma phenotypes.