Woman are more likely to get these diseases than men. Here's why

Previously, if you said that women tend to get ill more often than men, you were certainly being sexist. But now new research could actually back up that statement.

Almost 80% of people who suffer from autoimmune diseases are female, but nobody really knew why - autoimmune disorders are diseases like psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, and rheumatoid arthritis, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. They are not very nice.

Prior research on why this trend was happening had focused on sex hormones, like oestrogen and testosterone. But scientists from the University of Michigan decided to drop all their preconceptions and approach the issue from a new angle – and they might have found an answer.

 Picture: Science Photo Library

Instead of hormones, they looked at genes, particularly gender-specific genes and the differences between them. Analysing genetic material from 82 healthy men and women, they found what author Yun Liang, PhD described as a “striking differences in gene expression” between genders.

Liang's team identified 661 genes that were expressed differently in men and women, and many of those were genes associated with the immune system, with some having also been linked to autoimmune diseases in the past.

In their report, they explain:

This finding suggested that these sex-biased genes contributed to not only increased disease susceptibility but possibly also heightened disease activity.

In this context, we note that being female is the strongest risk factor for the development of autoimmunity, and it dwarfs the identified autoimmune genetic risk variants.

It’s hoped that their new findings can be used to fight and prevent the diseases in the future.

H/T: Time

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