Health Male hormones regulate stomach inflammation in mice Glucocorticoids and androgens promote a healthy stomach pit by inhibiting inflammation, left, while their absence promotes inflammation and SPEM seen in a diseased pit, right. SPEM glands are also much larger than healthy stomach glands. Jonathan Busada, Ph.D./NIEHS Scientists at the National Institutes of Health determined that stomach inflammation is regulated differently in male and female mice after finding that androgens, or male sex hormones, play a critical role in preventing inflammation in the stomach. The finding suggests that physicians could consider treating male patients with stomach inflammation differently than female patients with the same condition. The study was published in Gastroenterology. Researchers at NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) made the discovery after removing adrenal glands from mice of both sexes. Adrenal glands produce glucocorticoids, hormones