| Disease Background | ||
| Description of Disease | ||
| Who is at Risk? | ||
| National Cancer Institute Dictionary | ||
| Our Research | ||
| Overview of Hutchinson Center Research | ||
Research Highlights
|
||||
| Relevant Articles | ||||
| Hutchinson Center Publications | ||||
| Treatment at the SCCA | ||||
| Autoimmune Diseases | ||||
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic autoimmune disease, the hallmark feature of which is persistent symmetrical inflammation in the joints, especially small joints. As a systemic disease, it also may affect other tissues and organs. Current therapy is directed toward diminishing the inflammatory response and treating the uncontrolled inflammation. Although a number of different therapies are effective in RA, some patients experience disease progression that is resistant to all known therapies, and currently there is no therapy known to prevent RA.
| [ Back to Top ] |
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) affects more than 2.5 million people in the United States, and like other autoimmune diseases, it disproportionately affects more women than men. Women with RA outnumber men three-to-one. Although children also can be affected, the onset of RA most commonly occurs in adults with increasing frequency at least into their 60s.
| [ Back to Top ] |
Overview of Hutchinson Center Research
One of the big mysteries in immunology is why a fetus, which is half-foreign to the mother's immune system because half of the child's genes are inherited from the father, isn't rejected by the mother's immune system. Paradoxically, most women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) get better or see their symptoms disappear entirely during pregnancy. This cannot be explained by changes in sex hormones because taking estrogen and progesterone does not improve rheumatoid arthritis. Previously, immunologists believed the fetus is isolated from the mother's immune system but recently it has become known that there is some exchange of cells in both the mother and her fetus' blood.
Researchers at the Hutchinson Center are pursuing cellular and genetic research studies based on the theory that the exchange of cells contributes both to a bi-directional tolerance of the fetus, and to the correction of the immune system dysfunction in mothers with RA.
Studies published by Hutchinson Center researchers showed that remission of RA occurred most often when the child had inherited a particular set of genes from the father that were different from the mother's. The genes that are important are called human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II genes. They are genes that are particularly important to immune reactions and to the distinction of self versus foreign. In current studies, the researchers aim to determine what the mechanism is by which differences for these particular genes result in a beneficial effect on RA.
| [ Back to Top ] |
Uncovering the genetic secrets of autoimmune disease
The causes of autoimmune diseases, in which the immune system begins attacking the body's own tissues, are unknown. What triggers these diseases? How do they progress? Why do they strike women much more often than men? These form the core research questions of scientists in Dr. J. Lee Nelson's laboratory. Answering them requires a variety of approaches involving collaborations with clinical scientists, epidemiologists, and other laboratory-based investigators worldwide.
Nelson's laboratory studies focus on understanding the genetics that underlies the complex system by which the immune system distinguishes between the body's own cells and foreign invaders. Women with rheumatoid arthritis often experience a remission of symptoms during pregnancy, suggesting that incompatibility between the immune systems of mother and fetus may play a role in these diseases.
To determine the role of genetic predisposition and environmental factors involves collaborating with population scientists in the Hutchinson Center. Nelson's studies have shown that immune cell incompatibility can apply to men and women who have not been pregnant because incompatible cells can engraft from a twin or from a blood transfusion. More recently her team found that cells from a mother can persist in her children into adult life.
See also Dr. J. Lee Nelson's Web site.
| [ Back to Top ] |
Search for More Publications »
| [ Back to Top ] |
