FAMILY STUDY OF PEDIATRIC AUTOIMMUNITY

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. This is a prospective case-control study of the effects of family inheritance on the risk for developing lupus and other autoimmune diseases. We and others have found that there is a transfer of cells between mother and fetus during pregnancy and that the transferred cells persist indefinitely in the child. Just as bone marrow transplantation can lead to a disease of chronic inflammation called graft-versus-host-disease, maternal cells in a child may be a factor in the triggering or perpetuating chronic inflammatory diseases, called autoimmune diseases. However, healthy persons may also harbor maternal cells. We believe that the genes carried by both the mother and child may be important in disease. A total of 60 patients with autoimmune disease and 60 healthy control patients will be consented for the study. Potential study subjects will be approached in the rheumatology and adolescent medicine clinics at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center by their consulting physicians. Additional healthy controls will be recruited through the FHCRC. After giving informed consent, they will be asked to donate up to 60cc of blood. For patients with autoimmune disease, samples will be obtained during active disease and again during remission. Brief questionnaires will be filled out by patients and physicians or study staff to obtain clinical information. This study will increase understanding of how the immune system tolerates foreign cells and how loss of this tolerance due to specific genes inherited, may lead to autoimmunity. If maternal cells and specific molecular targets contribute to the causes of autoimmune diseases, then treatments could target these cells and proteins to preserve the lives of patients.