Why Do Women Get More Autoimmune Diseases? Study of Mice Hints at Answer
February 12, 2024 9:00 PM Subscribe
Why Do Women Get More Autoimmune Diseases? Study of Mice Hints at Answers.
Four in five people with an autoimmune disease are women. New research points to an RNA molecule involved in silencing one of their X chromosomes as a potential culprit.
Very interesting. But as the piece acknowledges, this can only be part of the answer, because the position is actually quite complex. To consider just IBD, my own condition, for example, twice as many women as men in the US and Europe get Crohn’s disease, but not Ulcerative Colitis (a comparable condition which is sometimes hard to distinguish). Nor is there the same difference in Asian populations. Smoking increases the risk for women, but not men.
Still a helpful clue as to how and why the X chromosome can play a role.
posted by Phanx at 11:51 PM on February 12 [3 favorites]
Still a helpful clue as to how and why the X chromosome can play a role.
posted by Phanx at 11:51 PM on February 12 [3 favorites]
"Xist—which functions only in women—randomly inactivates one of the two X chromosomes" Not strictly so because that gene is also expressed in folks with Kleinfelter's (XXY). But that statement only adds to the core idea because they (XXY) "face an elevated risk of autoimmune diseases similar to females"
The wider context is that what women lose on the auto-immune roundabouts they win on the cancer swings. It makes sense under the hypothesis that women have fizzier immune systems that can go off piste to attack self-cells. Immunity in men is a damper squib whc fails to deal with viruses . . . which, as well as being a problem in themselves, are a contributory cause in at least some cancers. The results for cancer in Kleinfelter's are mixed.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:41 AM on February 13 [9 favorites]
The wider context is that what women lose on the auto-immune roundabouts they win on the cancer swings. It makes sense under the hypothesis that women have fizzier immune systems that can go off piste to attack self-cells. Immunity in men is a damper squib whc fails to deal with viruses . . . which, as well as being a problem in themselves, are a contributory cause in at least some cancers. The results for cancer in Kleinfelter's are mixed.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:41 AM on February 13 [9 favorites]
Any idea if larger animals like elephant and whales have more autoimmune issues or address them in some other way? We know they have less cancer..
posted by jeffburdges at 5:58 AM on February 13
posted by jeffburdges at 5:58 AM on February 13
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posted by ducky l'orange at 9:33 PM on February 12 [4 favorites]