Neuroendocrinology and Human Biology Unit, Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, Institute for Animal Cell- and Systems Biology, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
Reprod Biol. 2024 Jun;24(2):100880. doi: 10.1016/j.repbio.2024.100880. Epub 2024 Apr 5.
Women may be more susceptible to infections in the luteal phase, supposedly as a consequence of the hormone progesterone and its immunosuppressive action. While immunosuppression may be important for successful oocyte implantation and pregnancy, it makes women more vulnerable to pathogens. According to theory, to compensate for reduced immunocompetence, women in the luteal phase exhibit proactive behavioral responses, such as disgust and avoidance of disease-associated stimuli, to minimize contagion risk. However, previous studies yielded inconsistent results, and did not account for accompanying proactive immune responses, like the increase of secretory immunoglobin A (sIgA). Here, we assessed the proactive immune response and feelings of disgust associated with disease cues in the comparison of 61 woman with a natural menstrual cycle (31 in the follicular and 30 in the luteal phase) and 20 women taking hormonal contraception (HC). Women rated disease vulnerability and disgust propensity, watched a video displaying people with respiratory symptoms, which was evaluated for its disgust-evoking potential and contagiousness, and provided saliva samples for hormone and sIgA analysis. Women with HC reported a heightened vulnerability to disease compared to naturally cycling women, whereas both the feeling of disgust and the sIgA increase elicited by the disease video were similar across groups, regardless of progesterone. We found a u-shaped relationship between progesterone and baseline sIgA in naturally cycling women, with its nadir during ovulation. Overall, our data do not support a compensatory relationship between the proposed progesterone-induced immunosuppression and heightened disgust or a proactive sIgA response.
女性可能更容易在黄体期受到感染，据推测这是孕激素及其免疫抑制作用的结果。虽然免疫抑制对于成功的卵子着床和怀孕可能很重要，但它使女性更容易受到病原体的侵袭。根据理论，为了弥补免疫能力的下降，黄体期的女性会表现出积极的行为反应，例如对与疾病相关的刺激物产生厌恶和回避，以最大程度地降低感染风险。然而，先前的研究结果不一致，并且没有考虑到伴随的积极免疫反应，例如分泌型免疫球蛋白 A（sIgA）的增加。在这里，我们评估了 61 名自然月经周期女性（卵泡期 31 名，黄体期 30 名）和 20 名服用激素避孕药（HC）的女性之间与疾病线索相关的积极免疫反应和厌恶感。女性对疾病易感性和厌恶倾向进行评分，观看一段显示有呼吸道症状的人的视频，评估其引起厌恶的潜力和传染性，并提供唾液样本进行激素和 sIgA 分析。与自然周期女性相比，服用 HC 的女性报告说对疾病的易感性更高，而无论孕激素如何，对疾病视频引起的厌恶感和 sIgA 增加在两组之间都是相似的。我们发现自然周期女性的孕激素与基线 sIgA 之间存在 U 形关系，在排卵时达到最低点。总体而言，我们的数据不支持拟议的孕激素诱导的免疫抑制与增强的厌恶感或积极的 sIgA 反应之间的补偿关系。
