The list of health issues that are being categorized as autoimmune diseases are just stacking up! Saw an article a couple weeks ago that alopecia areata, a disease that causes hair loss and baldness, was caused by an autoimmune response. And a more recent article confirmed that narcolepsy is also autoimmune.In alopecia areata, they found that some genes which attract killer immune cells are overexpressed in hair follicles. The immune cells attack the follicles and lead to rapid hair loss. In narcolepsy, the body's immune system attacks cells responsible for creating a certain hormone (hypocretin) in people's brains that's responsible for keeping people awake. The lack of hypocretin causes people to randomly and unexpectedly fall asleep.
It's amazing how many health problems are falling under the autoimmune category.
FYI: Alopecia areata and narcolepsy can occur in the same person as reported by Lloyd King, Jr, MD, PhD, Vanderbilt University Dermatology in
ReplyDeleteArchives of Dermatology (Arch Derm)2010(June), 146(6):677-9. There are interesting similarities in the autoimmune mechanisms of alopecia areata and narcolepsy described in this short report.
l.e.k.