“Man flu”, a term that refers to the concept of men exaggerating their symptoms when feeling under the weather, is supposedly a real phenomenon.

“男人流感”，是用来描述男在不舒服的情况下，通常会夸张他们的症状。据说这是一个真实的现象。

While research has claimed that a number of men do in fact have weaker immune systems than was previously supposed, a new study has discovered that when afflicted with influenza, there may be scientific reason why men recover at a faster rate than women.

虽然有研究表明很多男性的免疫力确实比我们想象的要弱，但是一项新研究揭示，有科学证据男性的恢复速度比女性要快。

Researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health decided to investigate the various effects that influenza can have on men and women.

来自约翰霍普金斯大学的彭博公共卫生学院的研究人员决定调查流感对于男女的不同影响。

The study, which was published in Biology of Sex Differences, stated that while it's commonly known that women tend to suffer more seriously from the flu than men, the reason why this is hasn't yet been confirmed.

这项研究发表在性别差异生物学，陈述了为什么女性的流感症状比男性更严重，具体的原因还没有被证实。

The team carried out the study by infecting live mice and human cells extracted from male humans with a non-lethal dose of H1N1, an Influenza A strain. This particular strain of influenza, which is also known as “swine flu”, caused a global flu pandemic between 2009 and 2010 that caused more than 18,000 deaths around the world.

该研究通过在活老鼠和从男性细胞提取物中，注入非致命的甲型流感病毒H1N1。这种流感就是众所周知的猪流感，曾经在2009年和2010年在全球蔓延，造成全球18000人的死亡。

The researchers found that the male mice and the human cells produced more amphiregulin when infected with the influenza strain.Man flu could be real, according to new study.

研究人员发现，在染上流感病毒以后，公鼠和人类细胞能够生成更多的双向调节因子。所以根据研究“男性流感”应该是确有其事。

Amphiregulin is a growth factor that has been found to play a role in tissue repair and development. The increased production of amphiregulin in the male mice and male human cells is believed to have enabled a faster recovery time from the influenza strain.

双向调节因子是一种生长因子，在组织修复和发展中起着重要的作用。在公鼠和男性细胞中有更多地该因子的产生，也就是意味着能让他们更快地从流感中恢复。

“The novel finding here is that females also have slower tissue-repair during recovery, due to relatively low production of amphiregulin,” said lead author Sabra Klein, PhD, who works as an associate professor at Bloomberg School.

“这一新发现揭示了，女性组织修复较慢的原因是，产生双向调节因子的水平比较低。”该研究的主笔Sabra Klein博士，同时也是在彭博学院的副教授这样说到。

（翻译：林浔鸥）