Effect of cross sex hormones on gene expression in Mattek reconstructed vaginal tissue model

It is estimated that more than one million people in the United States identify as transgender. Despite recent increased visibility, transgender individuals remain marginalized and subject to health disparities, and are underrepresented in biomedical research. Our central hypothesis is that gender affirming hormone therapy in transgender men leads to a dysregulated innate immune microenvironment and impaired barrier function of the vaginal mucosal compartment. we will conduct transcriptomic studies to identify the gene expression profile of the testosterone dominant vagina to identify changes in the immunologic signaling pathways that could negatively impact host-pathogen interactions. We conducted transcriptomic studies using RNA sequencing to identify the gene expression profile of the testosterone dominant vagina in comparion to the estradiol dominant vagina and vaginal tissue without sex hormone exposure to identify changes in the immunologic signaling pathways that could negatively impact host-pathogen interactions in this compartment in transgender men.