Well, all those of us who suffer from RA and/or are women will already know that it’s not because we’re a bunch of winging Minnies, but until recently, although a genetic link was suspected, it had not been found.
Professor Alan Silman, medical director of Arthritis Research UK, said: ‘This is the first time that a genetic association has been established between rheumatoid arthritis and the X chromosome. This could provide a useful clue in helping us to understand why rheumatoid arthritis is three times more likely to occur in women.’
It was reported late last year that among the 46(!) genes that seem to be linked to people getting RA, some have recently been discovered that are on the X chromosome. Now both men and women have X chromosomes, but while women have two X chromosomes, men have one X and one Y chromosome instead, and the genes don’t occur on the Y.
This is all part of a long-term study from the University of Manchester (UK) and the genes on the X chromosome are among the 14 found towards the end of last year.
Professor Jane Worthington, study lead based at the NIHR Manchester Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit, said: ‘This groundbreaking study brought together scientists from around the world and involved the use of DNA samples from more than 27,000 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and healthy controls’ She added, ‘We observed remarkable similarities with genetic markers associated with other autoimmune diseases,’ which is an interesting, but perhaps unsurprising finding.
The intention behind all this work is that it will lead to new ‘genetic therapies’ – drugs that can target certain genes and switch them on/off as appropriate. Let’s hope they won’t be too long in coming!
Pollyanna Penguin's RA Blog 
Lol … winging Minnie indeed! My RA started right at the beginning of menopause. Coincidence?
Fascinating, Polly! Thanks for sharing this information–it’s always nice to know there’s a REASON that these things happen the way they do. And if someday science can find a genetic cure, we’ll all be better off.
very interesting! it’s all well and good spending millions on drugs which sort of help the inflammation, but until we understand why people develop these diseases there will never be a proper cure or effective treatment for everyone. thanks for posting!
This is really interesting, thank you for sharing 🙂
Thanks for sharing, Polly – very interesting! It really is amazing how much we’re learning about this disease.