Organ Specificity in Autoimmune Diseases: Thyroid and Islet Autoimmunity in Alopecia Areata
March 2015
in “
The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism
”
TLDR Alopecia areata is linked to thyroid autoimmunity but not type 1 diabetes.
The study investigated the association of alopecia areata (AA) with thyroid and islet autoimmunity in 126 patients. It found that autoimmune thyroid disease was the most frequent autoimmune condition associated with AA (10.0%), while type 1 diabetes was not observed. Patients with AA had significantly higher prevalence of thyroid-related autoantibodies compared to controls, but similar prevalence of islet-related autoantibodies. The study also identified specific HLA haplotypes that were either protective or susceptible to these autoimmune diseases, indicating that AA was associated with thyroid autoimmunity but not islet autoimmunity, and this association was influenced by class II HLA haplotypes.