The role of X-chromosome inactivation in female predisposition to autoimmunity

Description

We propose that the phenomenon of X-chromosome inactivation in females may constitute a risk factor for loss of T-cell tolerance; specifically that skewed X-chromosome inactivation in the thymus may lead to inadequate thymic deletion. Using a DNA methylation assay, we have examined the X-chromosome inactivation patterns in peripheral blood from normal females (n = 30), female patients with a variety of autoimmune diseases (n = 167). No differences between patients and controls were observed. However, locally skewed X-chromsome inactivation may exist in the thymus, and therefore the underlying hypothesis remains to be disproved.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
21 Visit the original government dataset for complete information, documentation, and data access. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC17816/

Tags

  • nih
  • x-chromosome-inactivation
  • autoimmune-diseases
  • t-cell-tolerance
  • thymic-deletion

Topics

Categories