Theories About Genetic Autoimmune Women's Diseases
The immune system is supposed to protect the human body against harmful invaders. When it treasonously turns against the body that it is supposed to defend and protect with serious if not deadly consequences, how else can the immune system be defined? Paul Ehrlich, a Nobel Prize winner, called it “horror autotoxicus.”
Autoimmunity is defined as the failure of the organism’s own immune system to recognize its own cells and tissues and, thus, cause an aberrant immune response. This is called an autoimmune disease. The National Institute of Health was able to identify about 80 autoimmune diseases that may involve specific organ systems or multiple systems. The most common genetic autoimmune disorders include diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus (SLE), multiple sclerosis, scleroderma, and Sjogrens syndrome. There are reports that say that approximately 23.5 million Americans are affected this figure continues to rise.
How Gender Impacts on Autoimmune Diseases
Unfortunately for women, it seems that their gender plays some role in the development of these diseases. Although men can suffer from more severe symptoms, the women sufferers outnumber them. Insofar as statistics is concerned, it is apparent that the genetic autoimmune women’s diseases account for about 75 percent of the Americans who suffer from such kinds of autoimmune disorders. In fact, one of the leading or top causes of death in women under 65 and the fourth major cause of disability among women in the US are genetic autoimmune women’s diseases. One concern about many of these diseases is the difficulty of diagnosis with certain ailments having nonspecific symptoms that can be confused with other ailments.
The Prevalence of Autoimmune Diseases in Women
One may ask why women are more predisposed to autoimmune diseases. There are actually no concrete explanations for the sex role in autoimmunity. Nevertheless, some explanations may help in understanding the special cases of women.
• Women have the tendency to mount more pronounced immunological responses than men do that increases the risk of autoimmunity. There are scientific evidences pointing to the involvement of the sex hormones that are shifting levels during their monthly menstrual cycles. Pregnancy is also one time when there is a higher risk for autoimmune diseases. This is being related to the possible exchange of cells or materials between mother and child that can induce autoimmunity.
• Another theory postulates complex X-linked genetic predisposition. This is called as “X-inactivation Skew Theory” and was proposed by Jeff Stewart of the Princeton University. In this theory, there is a suggestion that the female high tendency to get autoimmunity is due to an imbalanced X-inactivation. This been recently supported by the conformation in scleroderma and autoimmune thyroiditis
• There is also a theory that points to women’s ability to produce more antibodies, globulin and having lymphocytes that are more reactive than men’s are. It is hypothesized that these differences can be related to pregnancy. Sex hormones (estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone) may mediate most of the sex-biased differences in the immune responses. There are proofs that these hormones can directly influence a Th1- or Th2-type immune response depending on the type of interaction that may occur with hormone receptors on immune cells. Hormone receptors are varied and these may include cytokine receptors like IL-1R and IL-18R and these allow for the bidirectional regulation of the immune responses.
Despite the enormous advancement in medical science and technology, many questions still surround the issue concerning genetic autoimmune women’s diseases. It is true that research is making giant strides in treating and finding better cure for these autoimmune diseases. However, research must extend its efforts on development of diagnostic tests that can diagnose these diseases properly and early in their course for excellent outcomes.
