An inherent T cell deficit in healthy males to C . neoformans infection may begin to explain the sex susceptibility in incidence of cryptococcosis

Background Cryptococcus neoformans, the causative agent of cryptococcosis, causes ~ 181,000 deaths annually, with males having a higher incidence of disease than females (7M:3F). The reason for this sex bias remains unclear. We hypothesized that this disparity was due to biological differences between the male and female immune response.