- Health
A newly published study suggests that the immune system may play a role in why recovery from pain differs in men and women.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
New findings suggest that immune cells may be involved in pain management between men and women
(Image credit: Grace Cary via Getty Images)
- Copy link
- X
Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.
Become a Member in Seconds
Unlock instant access to exclusive member features.
Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Delivered Daily
Daily Newsletter
Sign up for the latest discoveries, groundbreaking research and fascinating breakthroughs that impact you and the wider world direct to your inbox.
Signup +
Once a week
Life's Little Mysteries
Feed your curiosity with an exclusive mystery every week, solved with science and delivered direct to your inbox before it's seen anywhere else.
Signup +
Once a week
How It Works
Sign up to our free science & technology newsletter for your weekly fix of fascinating articles, quick quizzes, amazing images, and more
Signup +
Delivered daily
Space.com Newsletter
Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!
Signup +
Once a month
Watch This Space
Sign up to our monthly entertainment newsletter to keep up with all our coverage of the latest sci-fi and space movies, tv shows, games and books.
Signup +
Once a week
Night Sky This Week
Discover this week's must-see night sky events, moon phases, and stunning astrophotos. Sign up for our skywatching newsletter and explore the universe with us!
Signup +Join the club
Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards.
Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletterPain is something most people experience after an injury, whether from a sprained ankle, surgery or car accident. Normally pain fades as the body heals. But it may last longer in women than in men, making women more likely to develop chronic pain.
For decades, differences in pain between men and women have often been attributed to psychological, emotional or social factors. Because of that, persistent pain in women is often overlooked in care.
You may like-
Early research hints at why women experience more severe gut pain than men do
-
Insomnia and anxiety come with a weaker immune system — a new study starts to unravel why
-
'Mitochondrial transfer' into nerves could relieve chronic pain, early study hints
But recent work from my lab and others suggests that immune cells may also be critical to helping pain resolve, and differences in how these cells function between men and women may influence how quickly pain goes away.
Hormones and immune cells
I am a neuroimmunologist who studies how the nervous and immune systems communicate. My research team aims to understand why pain sometimes persists long after an injury has healed, eventually becoming chronic.
To study this process, we combined experiments in mice with data from people who had been involved in motor vehicle collisions. This type of injury is a common trigger for long-term musculoskeletal pain, making it an ideal situation to study how acute pain becomes chronic.
We focused on a specific molecule called interleukin-10 that helps reduce inflammation, measuring its levels in both mice after skin injury and in people in the emergency room after a motor vehicle accident. Surprisingly, we found that IL-10 doesn't just calm inflammation. It also communicates directly to pain-sensing nerve cells to switch them off. In other words, IL-10 helps pain to go away.
Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter nowContact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.We identified that IL-10 was mostly produced by a type of immune cell called monocytes that circulate in the blood and travel to injured tissues.
Across both mice and humans, we found that males tended to recover from pain more quickly than females. The reason appears to lie in how monocytes behave after injury. In males, these immune cells were more likely to produce IL-10, the molecule that helps resolve pain. In females, this response was less pronounced.
Importantly, we also found that testosterone influences how much IL-10 these immune cells produce. Higher levels of testosterone in males promoted higher production of IL-10 by monocytes.
You may like-
Insomnia and anxiety come with a weaker immune system — a new study starts to unravel why
-
'Mitochondrial transfer' into nerves could relieve chronic pain, early study hints
-
'Pain sponge' derived from stem cells could soak up pain signals before they reach the brain
This finding suggests that hormonal signals may shape the body’s ability to naturally turn off pain after injury.
Avenues for treatment
Our results point to a shift in how scientists think about pain: Rather than viewing the immune system only as a driver of pain, it may also be a key player in resolving it. Differences in immune cell function could explain why some people recover quicker from injury while others go on to develop chronic pain.
RELATED STORIES—Do women have a higher pain tolerance than men?
—Early research hints at why women experience more severe gut pain than men do
—Why Do Some People Feel More Pain Than Others?
Understanding these biological pathways could eventually lead to new treatments. Instead of simply blocking pain signals, future therapies might aim to boost the body's own pain resolution system. Helping immune cells calm down pain-sensing neurons more effectively could more quickly restore comfort after injury.
While more research is needed, these results highlight a promising new direction in the effort to prevent and treat chronic pain and better understand sex differences in pain.
This edited article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Geoffroy LaumetAssociate Profesor of Physiology and Neuroscience, Michigan State UniversityDr. Geoffroy Laumet is an Associate Professor at Michigan State University whose work focuses on understanding why we feel pain and how the body naturally recovers from it. His research explores how the nervous system and immune system communicate with each other, and how this interaction influences conditions such as chronic pain, migraine, and the side effects of cancer treatments. By studying these processes in both laboratory models and patient samples through collaborations with clinicians, his goal is to identify new ways to promote recovery from pain without relying on addictive medications.
View MoreYou must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
Logout Read more
Insomnia and anxiety come with a weaker immune system — a new study starts to unravel why
'Mitochondrial transfer' into nerves could relieve chronic pain, early study hints
'Pain sponge' derived from stem cells could soak up pain signals before they reach the brain
Men develop cardiovascular disease 7 years before women
Heart attacks are less harmful at night. And that might be key to treating them.
How menopause affects the brain — and what we still don't know
Latest in Health
The 'sweet spot' of overconfidence — project a bit to be perceived as competent, but don't be 'too seduced,' a cognitive neuroscientist explains in a Q&A
Inherited diseases don't work like we thought they did
COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy may cut risk of preeclampsia
Obesity is linked to 1 in 10 deaths from infection worldwide — and scientists are still learning why
'The limits of human longevity have still not been reached,' study suggests
'Universal' nasal-spray vaccine protects against viruses, bacteria and allergens in mice
Latest in Opinion
Pain lasts longer in women, and immune cells may be the culprit
Vaccine denial sets Americans up for more chronic illness
How menopause affects the brain — and what we still don't know
Trump is bringing car pollution and other greenhouse gases back to America's skies. Here are the health risks we all face from climate change.
'The brain consistently moved upward and backward': Astronauts' brains physically shift in their heads during spaceflight
Are you a night owl or an early bird?
LATEST ARTICLES
13 rivers merge into striking half-and-half waterway in Guyana- 2Lady of Elche: A 2,400-year-old bust of a mysterious 'highborn' woman from pre-Roman Spain
- 3Pain lasts longer in women, and immune cells may the culprit
- 4The 'sweet spot' of overconfidence — project a bit to be perceived as competent, but don't be 'too seduced,' a cognitive neuroscientist explains in a Q&A
- 5Ancient Greek mystery cult priestesses may have chemically tweaked fungus to induce psychedelic hallucinations
