Autoimmune disease

Autoimmune diseases arise from an overactive immune response of the body against substances and tissues normally present in the body. In other words, the body attacks its own cells. Autoimmune diseases are a major cause of immune-mediated diseases.

Gender influence

Women tend to be affected more often by autoimmune disorders; nearly 79% of autoimmune disease patients in the USA are women. Also they tend to appear during or shortly after puberty. It is not known why this is the case, although hormone levels have been shown to affect the severity of some autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis.^[1] Other causes may include the presence of fetal cells in the maternal bloodstream. ^[2]

Autoimmune diseases

Name	Accepted/ suspected	Hypersensitivity	Autoantibody
Accepted^[4]	\|- \| Addison's disease	Accepted^[4]	\|- \| Ankylosing spondylitis	Accepted^[4]	\|- \| Antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APS)	Accepted^[4]	\|- \| Autoimmune hemolytic anemia	Accepted^[5]	II \|- \| Autoimmune hepatitis	Accepted^[4]		Anti-Smooth Muscle Actin \|- \| Autoimmune inner ear disease	Suspected^[6]	\|- \| Bullous pemphigoid	Accepted^[5]	II	Anti-Bullous Pemphigoid Antigen 1 and 2 (Hemidesmosome antigens) \|- \| Coeliac disease	Accepted^[7]^[8]^[9]	IV	Anti-transglutaminase \|- \| Chagas disease	Suspected^[10]	\|- \| Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	Suspected^[11] ^[12]	\|- \| Dermatomyositis	Accepted^[13]	\|- \| Diabetes mellitus type 1	Accepted^[4]	IV \|- \| Endometriosis	Suspected^[14]	\|- \| Goodpasture's syndrome	Accepted^[4]	II	Anti-Basment Membrane Collagen Type IV Protein \|- \| Graves' disease	Accepted^[4]	II \|- \| Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS)	Accepted^[4]	IV	Anti-ganglioside \|- \| Hashimoto's disease	Accepted^[4]	IV	\|- \| Hidradenitis suppurativa	Suspected^[15]	\|- \| Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura	Accepted^[4]	II \|- \| Interstitial cystitis	Suspected^[16]	\|- \| Lupus erythematosus	Accepted^[4]	III \|- \| Morphea	Suspected^[17]	\|- \| Multiple sclerosis	Accepted^[4]	IV	Anti-Myelin Basic Protein \|- \| Myasthenia gravis	Accepted^[4]	II \|- \| Narcolepsy	Suspected^[18]	\|- \| Neuromyotonia	Suspected^[19]	\|- \| Pemphigus Vulgaris	Accepted^[4]	II	Anti-Desmogein 3 \|- \| Pernicious anaemia	Accepted^[20]	II	\|- \| Polymyositis	Accepted^[13]	\|- \| Primary biliary cirrhosis	Accepted^[21]		Anti-p62, Anti-sp100, Anti-Mitochondrial(M2) \|- \| Rheumatoid arthritis	Accepted^[4]	III	Rheumatoid factor \|- \| Schizophrenia	Suspected^[22]^[23]^[24]	\|- \| Scleroderma	Suspected^[17]		Anti-topoisomerase \|- \| Sjögren's syndrome	Accepted^[4]	\|- \| Temporal arteritis (also known as "giant cell arteritis")	Accepted^[4]	IV	\|- \| Vasculitis	Accepted^[5]	III \|- \| Vitiligo	Suspected^[25]^[26]	\|- \| Wegener's granulomatosis	Accepted^[27]		Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic(cANCA)