Schistosoma mansoni antigen induced innate immune memory features mitochondrial biogenesis and can be inhibited by ovarian produced hormones.

We have previously identified that S. mansoni infection induces a unique form of myeloid training that protects male but not female mice from high fat diet induced disease. Here we demonstrate that ovarian derived hormones account for this sex specific difference. Ovariectomy of females prior to infection permits metabolic reprogramming of the myeloid lineage, with BMDM exhibiting carbon source flexibility for cellular respiration, and mice protected from systemic metabolic disease. The innate training phenotype of infection can be replicated by in vivo injection of SEA, and by exposure of bone marrow to SEA in culture prior to macrophage differentiation (Day 0). This protective phenotype is linked to increased chromatin accessibility of lipid and mitochondrial pathways in BMDM including Nrf1 and Tfam, as well as mitochondrial biogenesis. This work provides evidence that S. mansoni antigens induce a unique form of innate training inhibited by ovarian-derived hormones in females.