Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42549038›Full record

ReviewFrontiers in immunology2026

Hormone-dependent immune regulation shapes asthma heterogeneity across the female lifespan.

Qiaoyu Yang, Shucheng Hua

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Frontiers in immunology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing 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

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

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

2 authors.

Qiaoyu YangDepartment of Resperatory Medicine, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
Shucheng HuaDepartment of Resperatory Medicine, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Asthma exhibits pronounced sex differences across the human lifespan, shifting from a predominance in males during childhood toward an increased prevalence, severity, and heterogeneity in females following puberty. These epidemiological patterns are not paralleled by uniform changes in disease phenotype, with adult females exhibiting a higher prevalence of non-type 2 inflammation. Mechanistically, estrogen has emerged as a key regulator of this heterogeneity through its pleiotropic effects on immune and structural cells. However, the immunological actions of estrogen are highly context-dependent, varying with receptor subtype (ERα versus ERβ), hormone concentration, and prevailing inflammatory milieu. Rather than uniformly amplifying immunity, estrogen's principal nuclear receptors exert opposing effects. ERα predominantly promotes immune activation, whereas ERβ exerts counterbalancing anti-inflammatory and bronchoprotective functions. Estrogen promotes immune amplification rather than polarization by simultaneously disrupting regulatory pathways and enhancing T helper 2 (Th2)-, T helper 17 (Th17)-, and innate immune system-mediated responses. Sex chromosome-linked and epigenetic mechanisms, including X-chromosome inactivation escape, further contribute to immune activation in females, although direct evidence in the asthma-specific context remains limited. Importantly, asthma phenotypes are shaped across the female lifespan by interactions between hormonal signaling and other contributing factors such as obesity and other comorbidities, viral infection, and environmental pollutant exposure, as well as emerging non-type 2 pathways including NLRP3 inflammasome activation and neutrophil extracellular trap formation, leading to context-dependent inflammatory patterns. This review summarizes the role of estrogen receptors and various cell types in mediating asthma heterogeneity, providing a mechanistic basis for sex-specific disease variation and highlighting the need for precision strategies that account for hormonal and life-stage differences.

Indexed as

AsthmaEstrogensLongevityAnimalsFemaleHumansSex CharacteristicsSex FactorsEstrogensasthmaestrogenfemalehormoneimmunityinflammationsex difference

Identifiers

PMID42549038
PMCPMC13430496

What Socratic holds

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Registered trials

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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 Socratic graph.