Pre-disease pregnancy complications and systemic sclerosis: pathogenic or pre-clinical?

The fetal microchimerism theory of the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis (SSc) has compelling biologic support including the female predominance of the disease, mean age of onset after the childbearing years, similarities between diffuse cutaneous SSc and graft-versus-host-disease, as well as the detection of microchimeric cells in peripheral blood and skin of SSc patients. This issue of Arthritis Research and Therapy presents findings of a positive association between pregnancy complications and future diagnosis of SSc in parous women.

However, before interpreting results of this epidemiologic study as support of fetal microchimerism, other theories of the observed associations must be considered.

Author: Eliza Chakravarty
Credits/Source: Arthritis Research &Therapy 2012, 14:102

Published on: 2012-02-06

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