Autoimmunity Inheritance

Image found here.
A few days ago, John's nephew and his wife had a beautiful baby boy. John and I were tickled pink to be asked to be the little guy's godparents. I held this precious bundle and counted his fingers and toes and smooched his silky smooth cheeks. What a blessing.

His parents were uber prepared for this little boy's arrival. They thoroughly researched everything from car seats and good/bad plastic products and vaccinations. His parents also did some research into our family's health history. They found several significant histories of diabetes, heart disease, SIDs, allergies and such, but didn't discuss autoimmune disease.

Can autoimmune disease be inherited? This is a very good question to ask when considering family health history.

The short answer to this question is No. And Yes.

Sigh. Nothing is simple in autoimmune disease, is it? It seems that the tendency to acquire an autoimmune disease is more likely in close family members. So, no, these diseases are not directly inherited. But the possibility of acquiring an AD is higher especially when combined with some environmental trigger.

From Lab Tests Online, this very good general article discusses autoimmunity:

The cause of autoimmune diseases is unknown, but it appears that there is an inherited predisposition to develop autoimmune disease in many cases.

This from Frequently Asked Questions from Johns Hopkins:

Q: Are autoimmune diseases inherited? A: Clinical and epidemiologic evidence as well as data from experimental animals demonstrate that a tendency to develop autoimmune disease is inherited. This tendency may be large or small depending on the disease but, in general, close relatives are more likely to develop the same or a related autoimmune disease. A number or genes have been implicated in causing autoimmune disease, primarily genes related to the human major histocompatibility complex called HLA.
Q: If autoimmune diseases are not primarily inherited, what causes them? A: It seems likely that environmental factors acting with the genetic predisposition of the patient are responsible for triggering autoimmune disease. A few such triggers have been identified, including a number of drugs that are associated with some forms of lupus, thrombocytopenia, hemolytic anemia and other autoimmune disorders. Infections can be followed by an autoimmune disease in a few instances such as rheumatic fever followed by a streptococcal infection and Guillain-Barre` syndrome caused by chlamydia. A great deal of circumstantial evidence suggests that viruses may play a role in initiating some autoimmune diseases. A number of nutrients have been studied including iodine which contribute to the onset of autoimmune thyroid disease. In most cases, however, we do not have clear evidence of a particular environmental trigger of autoimmune disease.

Since Baby Boy is not a blood relative, I know that along with the toys and clothes and flowers and balloons and hugs and kisses, my autoimmune disease is not included in my gifts to him.

I now know that I have given this tendency to my children and future grandchildren, however.

Let's hope that this gift remains unwrapped.