ReviewClinical and experimental immunology2014
Microbial 'old friends', immunoregulation and socioeconomic status.
Review in Clinical and experimental immunology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 97 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
97 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 199 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- A systematic review of the association between biological markers and environmental stress risk factors for adolescent depression.Journal of psychiatric research · 2021Pooled it
- An Actual Natural Setting Improves Mood Better Than Its Virtual Counterpart: A Meta-Analysis of Experimental Data.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Pooled it
- Environmental exposures and child and maternal gut microbiota in rural Malawi.Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology · 2020Trial
- A novel soil-derived Mycolicibacterium decreases anxiety-like defensive behavioral responses in association with decreases in biomarkers of neuroinflammation and hippocampal microglial priming in adult male rats.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2026Article
- Micronutrients in Pediatric Asthma: Biological Mechanisms and Clinical Evidence-A Narrative Review.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Itching to know: the Microbiome, Allergic Disease, and Antimicrobial Chemicals.Current environmental health reports · 2026Review
- Interplay between obesity-associated insulin resistance and immune system through the lens of evolutionary medicine.Molecular metabolism · 2026Review
- The role of gut microbiome in the pathophysiology of PTSD, depression, and anxiety disorders.Gut microbes reports · 2026Review
- Unearthing roundworms: Nematodes as determinants of human health.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Review
- Early-Life Demographic Factors Shape Gut Microbiome Patterns Associated with Rotavirus Gastroenteritis Severity.Viruses · 2025Article
- Aspects of Genetic Diversity, Host Specificity and Public Health Significance of Single-Celled Intestinal Parasites Commonly Observed in Humans and Mostly Referred to as 'Non-Pathogenic'.APMIS : acta pathologica, microbiologica, et immunologica Scandinavica · 2025Review
- Birth and household exposures are associated with changes to skin bacterial communities during infancy.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2025Article
- Gut Dysbiosis and Adult Atopic Dermatitis: A Systematic Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Review
- Microbiota and Autism: A Review on Oral and Gut Microbiome Analysis Through 16S rRNA Sequencing.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- Article
- Intricate Crosstalk Between Food Allergens, Phages, Bacteria, and Eukaryotic Host Cells of the Gut-skin Axis.The Yale journal of biology and medicine · 2024Article
- Reevaluating Biota Alteration: Reframing Environmental Influences on Chronic Immune Disorders and Exploring Novel Therapeutic Opportunities.The Yale journal of biology and medicine · 2024Review
- Does "all disease begin in the gut"? The gut-organ cross talk in the microbiome.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2024Review
37 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The immune system evolved to require input from at least three sources that we collectively term the 'old friends': (i) the commensal microbiotas transmitted by mothers and other family members; (ii) organisms from the natural environment that modulate and diversify the commensal microbiotas; and (iii) the 'old' infections that could persist in small isolated hunter-gatherer groups as relatively harmless subclinical infections or carrier states. These categories of organism had to be tolerated and co-evolved roles in the development and regulation of the immune system. By contrast, the 'crowd infections' (such as childhood virus infections) evolved later, when urbanization led to large communities. They did not evolve immunoregulatory roles because they either killed the host or induced solid immunity, and could not persist in hunter-gatherer groups. Because the western lifestyle and medical practice deplete the 'old' infections (for example helminths), immunoregulatory disorders have increased, and the immune system has become more dependent upon microbiotas and the natural environment. However, urbanization maintains exposure to the crowd infections that lack immunoregulatory roles, while accelerating loss of exposure to the natural environment. This effect is most pronounced in individuals of low socioeconomic status (SES) who lack rural second homes and rural holidays. Interestingly, large epidemiological studies indicate that the health benefits of living close to green spaces are most pronounced for individuals of low SES. Here we discuss the immunoregulatory role of the natural environment, and how this may interact with, and modulate, the proinflammatory effects of psychosocial stressors in low SES individuals.
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Registered trials
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.