Researchers at National Jewish Health have identified a trigger for autoimmune diseases such as lupus, Crohn's disease and multiple sclerosis. The findings, published in the April 2017 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, help explain why women suffer autoimmune disease more frequently than men, and suggest a therapeutic target to prevent autoimmune disease in humans. The open-access article is titled “B cells Expressing the Transcription Factor T-Bet Drive Lupus-Like Autoimmunity.” "Our findings confirm that age-associated B cells (ABCs) drive autoimmune disease," said Kira Rubtsova, PhD, an instructor in biomedical science at National Jewish Health. "We demonstrated that the transcription factor T-bet inside B cells causes ABCs to develop. When we deleted T-bet inside B cells, mice prone to develop autoimmune disease remained healthy. We believe the same process occurs in humans with autoimmune disease, more often in elderly women." Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system attacks and destroys the organs and tissue of its own host. Dozens of autoimmune diseases afflict millions of people in the United States. Several autoimmune diseases, including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis strike women 2 times to 10 times as often as men. Overall, about 80 percent of autoimmune patients are women. There is no cure for autoimmune disease.Login Or Register To Read Full Story