title: The Gender Bender effect in Periodontal Immune Response.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The gender and sex of an individual is known to have a significant bearing on the immune system, responsible for protection against infections and disease. Contemporary evidence suggests there exists a sexual dimorphism in the hetero immune as well as autoimmune responses in human beings and females show stronger and more vigorous immune responses to antigenic stimulations, e.g infectious diseases and vaccination. The evidence supportive to gender based heterogeneity in immune responses specifically in context of periodontal disease, is mounting in contemporary literature.
  
  
  METHODS
  A thorough and methodical search for related scientific publications have been accomplished by using different key words and terms like sex or gender based immune differences in periodontal disease, both by manual methods and on various electronic databases. Primary research articles, narrative and systematic reviews of good quality, relevant to the subject were included.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The aggregate effects of the factors related to gender such as the steroid hormones as well as gene based differences in both sexes as supported by published literature are in line with the observed variation in susceptibility for chronic periodontitis in both genders , with males showing more risk for disease than women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Gender as a risk factor for periodontal disease needs to identified, its underlying mechanisms to contribute needs to be revealed, so that novel strategies for risk assessment, disease identification and individualized therapeutic approaches can be developed for optimized patient care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics & Oral Implantology, Dr. Harvansh Singh Judge Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. vishakha_grover@rediffmail.com.
authors.forename: Vishakha
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Grover
authors.forename: Ashish
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.forename: Anoop
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kapoor
authors.forename: Ranjan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Malhotra
authors.forename: Gurparkash Singh
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Chahal
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular / Q000276:immunology*; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D010510:Periodontal Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics
chemical_list: D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones