ReviewTrends in genetics : TIG2019
The Pregnancy Pickle: Evolved Immune Compensation Due to Pregnancy Underlies Sex Differences in Human Diseases.
Review in Trends in genetics : TIG, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 63 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
63 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 121 citations in OpenAlex.
- Zika virus infection and acute transverse myelitis: a comprehensive systematic review.Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de Sao Paulo · 2024Pooled it
- Impact of sex chromosomes and gonad type in stress susceptibility in corticostriatal brain regions.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Defective Trophoblast Differentiation, Endothelial Dysfunction, and Immune Dysregulation in Preeclampsia Coalesce on a Placental VGLL3-Centered Gene Network.Circulation · 2026Article
- Female reproductive status and ecological conditions impact the magnitude of sex differences in human immune status across the lifespan.Research square · 2026Article
- CD4Nature communications · 2026Article
- Escape from X inactivation varies across genes and tissues and shapes sex-biased sex chromosome gene expression.BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Global, Regional, and National Burden of Alopecia Areata in Children and Adolescents Aged 0-19 years from 1990 to 2021 and Projection to 2040.Clinical, cosmetic and investigational dermatology · 2026Article
- Harnessing mRNA-lipid nanoparticles as innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases.Molecular therapy. Methods & clinical development · 2025Review
- Inflammaging is minimal among forager-horticulturalists in the Bolivian Amazon.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Global burden of alopecia areata from 1990 to 2019 and emerging treatment trends analyzed through GBD 2019 and bibliometric data.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- VGLL3-centered network connects placental, vascular, and immune defects in preeclampsia.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Exposure to autoimmune disorders is associated with increased Alzheimer's disease risk in a multi-site electronic health record analysis.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Observational
- Global Burden of Alopecia Areata and Associated Diseases: A Trend Analysis From 1990 to 2021.Journal of cosmetic dermatology · 2025Article
- Evolutionary divergence between homologous X-Y chromosome genes shapes sex-biased biology.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Toward understanding sexual immune dimorphism in humans.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- An evolutionary medicine and life history perspective on aging and disease: Trade-offs, hyperfunction, and mismatch.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2025Review
- Plasma testosterone concentration is correlated with circulating immune cell abundance in transgender young people on gender-affirming hormone treatment.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Evolutionary and biomedical implications of sex differences in the primate brain transcriptome.Cell genomics · 2024Article
- HCV- and HBV-mediated liver cancer converge on similar transcriptomic landscapes and immune profiles.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- The conneXion between sex and immune responses.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2024Review
3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
We hypothesize that, ancestrally, sex-specific immune modulation evolved to facilitate survival of the pregnant person in the presence of an invasive placenta and an immunologically challenging pregnancy - an idea we term the 'pregnancy compensation hypothesis' (PCH). Further, we propose that sex differences in immune function are mediated, at least in part, by the evolution of gene content and dosage on the sex chromosomes, and are regulated by reproductive hormones. Finally, we propose that changes in reproductive ecology in industrialized environments exacerbate these evolved sex differences, resulting in the increasing risk of autoimmune disease observed in females, and a counteracting reduction in diseases such as cancer that can be combated by heightened immune surveillance. The PCH generates a series of expectations that can be tested empirically and that may help to identify the mechanisms underlying sex differences in modern human diseases.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.