Eve's Rib by Marianne J. Legato

Author:Marianne J. Legato
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2002-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

• Defects in gene processing during development

• The role of nongonadal hormones like thyroid hormone and prolactin in provoking autoimmune diseases. Prolactin is particularly interesting because it promotes normal immune activity. (The severity of several autoimmune diseases can be mitigated by using bromcriptine, which suppresses prolactin production.)

• Sex-specific exposures to inciting agents (like the fetal cells that enter the maternal circulation during pregnancy)

• The possibility that normal sex-specific variations in human function may lay the groundwork for autoimmune disease. For example, late in pregnancy the ligaments that connect joints in women loosen, which could increase women’s tendency to develop inflammation in those joints over time.

• The impact of sex-specific variations in anatomy and function, particularly that of the brain, on susceptibility to autoimmune disease

• Differences between the biological clocks (or circadian rhythms) of men and women. These can be important if cycling of hormones rather than the hormones themselves is important in promoting autoimmune phenomena.

• Whether a susceptibility gene is linked to an X or a Y chromosome. (This may be an important feature of how the severity of disease varies as a function of gender.)

• Cultural causes of sex skew of disease. (Women in some cultures eat the brains of the dead; kuru, a disease of the brain, is more common in such women; cultural factors can also influence hormonal levels through environmental factors like stress: women’s hormone levels may be differently affected by stress than those of men.)

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