Research throws light on the mystery of why women are much more prone to autoimmune disorders: A molecule made by one X chromosome in every female cell can generate antibodies to a woman’s own tissues.
@Gaywallet This particular link wasn’t opening for me. But what I have heard elsewhere is that there are indeed known to be a number of parts of the X chromosome which affect the immune system, in ways we are still in the process of figuring out.
It basically goes to say that the inactivation mechanism (Xist noncoding RNA strand) which gets triggered when there are two X chromosomes present in a cell, almost completely coats one of the X chromosomes, disabling it… but the result is not completely inert, still allowing the attachment of other partial strands, in weird combinations that can lead to an (auto)immune response.
@Gaywallet This particular link wasn’t opening for me. But what I have heard elsewhere is that there are indeed known to be a number of parts of the X chromosome which affect the immune system, in ways we are still in the process of figuring out.
It’s an interesting article, and well exposed.
It basically goes to say that the inactivation mechanism (Xist noncoding RNA strand) which gets triggered when there are two X chromosomes present in a cell, almost completely coats one of the X chromosomes, disabling it… but the result is not completely inert, still allowing the attachment of other partial strands, in weird combinations that can lead to an (auto)immune response.