Researchers may have uncovered a new clue to why women tend to get autoimmune disorders more often than men. The study, done by researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, Sweden, was published in Nature Communications.
Observations have shown that women are much more susceptible to autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). It is known that a link exists between testosterone and protection against autoimmune diseases and that this is likely linked to testosterone’s ability to reduce the number of B cells, thus reducing the chance that harmful antibodies will be released. In the current study, the researchers wanted to investigate why this correlation exists.
Experiments on mice and studies of blood samples from 128 men revealed that the protein BAFF is critical to this connection. BAFF, which stands for B-Cell Activating Factor, is critical function for making B cells more viable and testosterone is able to suppress it, thereby reducing the overall number of B cells. According to the authors, this link between BAFF and testosterone had gone unnoticed until now.
These findings can be helpful in creating treatments that target BAFF more effectively to suppress autoimmune disorders.