Interesting Article.

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I found this article from WebMD....I found it very VERY INTERESTING!! Hope

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Aug. 5, 2002 -- Environmental factors have long been thought to help trigger

lupus in people who are genetically predisposed to get the disease. Now

researchers have identified just such an environmental trigger in mice, and

it may help them understand the causes of lupus in humans.

The findings provide some of the best direct evidence yet that environmental

influences play a role in the onset and advancement of lupus, an autoimmune

disorder that causes the body's immune system to attack healthy tissue,

resulting in a wide range of symptoms including kidney disease, arthritis,

fatigue, joint pain, and anemia.

In this study, reported by University of Florida researchers in the August

issue of the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism, mice predisposed to develop

the disease got sick and died much quicker when they were injected with a

component of mineral oil known as pristane.

Although there is no evidence that pristane causes lupus in humans, it has

been shown to induce inflammatory disease when absorbed through the

respiratory or gastrointestinal tract. Researcher Westley H. Reeves, MD, says

the latest findings may help unravel the mystery of why some genetically

predisposed people get lupus while others do not.

" We are not saying that mineral oil causes lupus in humans, " Reeves tells

WebMD. " That would be highly speculative. But if we are able to identify the

environmental components in humans that act the way pristane does in mice, we

may be able to reduce the probability that someone who is prone to lupus will

actually get it. " Reeves is chief of rheumatology at the University of

Florida College of Medicine.

In the study, mice genetically engineered to develop lupus were injected with

either pristane or salt water. As anticipated, all of the predisposed mice

developed lupus-specific antibodies, but the mice injected with pristane

developed more antibodies more quickly. Disease symptoms were also

dramatically accelerated in the pristane-injected mice - 75% died within six

months of injection, compared to just 9% of mice injected with the saline

solution.

The findings suggest that environmental factors play a bigger role in the

development of lupus than has generally been believed, says researcher Hideo

Yoshida. Isolating those environmental factors and either avoiding them or

treating for them may turn out to be a relatively simple way to prevent or

manage the autoimmune disorder.

" We know that the genetic components of lupus are pretty complicated, and

there is not much that we can do about them right now, " Reeves says. " The

environmental components, however, are something that we might be able to

change. "

It is not clear how many Americans have lupus. Estimates ranged from 240,000

to 4 million, but the Lupus Foundation of America puts the figure at 1.4

million. Women are nine times more likely to develop lupus than men.

Autoimmune disease expert Helmick, MD, of the CDC says a national

registry is needed to get a better handle on just who has lupus and whether

more people are getting it than in the past.

In a study published last May, Helmick and colleagues reported that women are

five times more likely to die of lupus than men, and that the number of

African American women who die from the disease has increased by 70% over the

last two decades.

But Helmick tells WebMD that it is unclear whether more women are actually

dying or whether the increase is due to better diagnosis.

" We need to develop a better understanding about just how many people have

lupus so that we will know what these figures mean, " he says. " A population

registry would help us figure out what is going on throughout the United

States. "