Why patients with rheumatoid arthritis improve during pregnancy

The immune system has two main armies: The Th1 army and the Th2 army

Each army is concerned with certain types of microbes that it protects the body against

Also, autoimmune diseases are either mediated by a disorder of the Th1 army (Th1 diseases like rheumatoid arthritis) or by a disorder of the Th2 army (Th2 diseases like lupus).  

When a female gets pregnant, the baby she is bearing is not genetically part of her body. Only half of the genes of the baby are the same like the mother and the other half belong to the father. As a result, the immune system will recognize the baby as a foreign thing inside the body and will attempt to mount an immune response to attack it. This immune response is usually of the Th1 type. This phenomenon would tend to occur in any woman and is not related to having rheumatoid arthritis. If occurs in all women.

To prevent this rejection of the baby, the immune system, in any woman starts to downregulate the Th1 responses in general and to stimulate the Th2 responses. For that reason, any Th1-mediated autoimmune disease, will tend to be less active during pregnancy.

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This post was prepared and published by  Dr. Hatem Eleishi. Dr. Hatem Eleishi is a professor of rheumatology at Cairo university (Egypt) and is especially dedicated to supporting arthritis patients with online educational videos and articles about arthritis causes and treatment. He also runs a rheumatology clinic in Cairo and a center for www.tabibakom.com/en that, in addition to providing online rheumatology consultations, also provides online medical consultations in several different medical specialties by expert consultants from Egypt, Canada and the United States.

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