IFI44L and systemic lupus erythematosus: Consistently, in a B-cell-centric study of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), IFI44L was upregulated with evidence of estrogen-linked regulation, yet sex-stratified analyses of the healthy control cohort showed no association between sex and IFI44L expression, indicating that any sex effect is disease-modulated rather than constitutive at baseline [34].