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  • OUTLOOK

Why autoimmunity is most common in women

The biological basis for sex differences in autoimmune diseases are beginning to come into focus.
  1. Emily Sohn

    1. Emily Sohn is a freelance journalist in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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Illustration of two beakers containing mice, one labelled XX, one XY, with a hand reaching for the mouse in the XX jar

Credit: Daniel Stolle

When Rhonda Voskuhl was a postdoctoral fellow at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the mid-1990s, it was common knowledge among clinicians that multiple sclerosis (MS) — an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord — was about twice as common in women than in men. Today, she says, the ratio is closer to 3 to 11.

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Nature 595, S51-S53 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01836-9

This article is part of Nature Outlook: Autoimmune disease, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.

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