Endogeny

Immune system

Cytokine

Population

Androgen

Endocrinology

Biology

Internal medicine

Immunology

Medicine

Testosterone (patch)

Hormone

Environmental health

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Objectives Despite well‐known fitness advantages to males who produce and maintain high endogenous testosterone levels, such phenotypes may be costly if testosterone‐mediated investment in reproductive effort trade‐off against investment in somatic maintenance. Previous studies of androgen‐mediated trade‐offs in human immune function find mixed results, in part because most studies either focus on a few indicators of immunity, are confounded by phenotypic correlation, or are observational. Here the association between male endogenous testosterone and 13 circulating cytokines are examined before and after ex vivo antigen stimulation with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and lipopolysaccharides (LPS) in a high pathogen population of Bolivian forager‐horticulturalists. Materials and methods A Milliplex 13‐plex cytokine panel measured cytokine concentration in whole blood samples from 109 Tsimane men aged 40–89 (median = 50 years) before and after antigen stimulation with PHA and LPS. Urinary testosterone was measured vi...

Associations between male testosterone and immune function in a pathogenically stressed forager‐horticultural population