Evidence map›Paper›PMID 19690639›Full record

ArticleBiomarker insights2007

Alpha-fetoprotein: from a diagnostic biomarker to a key role in female fertility.

Christelle De Mees, Julie Bakker, Josiane Szpirer, Claude Szpirer

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biomarker insights, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. Sexually Dimorphic Neurosteroid Synthesis Regulates Neuronal Activity in the Murine Brain.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2021
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Developing a deeper insight into reproductive biomarkers.Clinical and experimental reproductive medicine · 2017
    Review
  6. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Christelle De MeesUniversité Libre de Bruxelles, Institut de Biologie et de Médecine Moléculaires, Rue Profs Jeener & Brachet, 12; B-6041 Gosselies (Charleroi), Belgium.
Julie Bakker
Josiane Szpirer
Claude Szpirer

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a well-known diagnostic biomarker used in medicine to detect fetal developmental anomalies such as neural tube defects or Down's syndrome, or to follow up the development of tumors such as hepatocellular carcinomas. However, and despite the fact that the protein was discovered almost half a century ago, little was known about its physiological function. The study of Afp knock-out mice uncovered a surprising function of AFP: it is essential for female fertility and for expression of normal female behaviors, and this action is mediated through its estrogen binding capacity. AFP sequestrates estrogens and by so doing protects the female developing brain from deleterious (defeminizing/masculinizing) effects of these hormones.

Indexed as

Alpha-fetoproteinAnovulationEstrogensFemale brain differentiation

Identifiers

PMID19690639
PMCPMC2716789

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.