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Estrogens and arthritis.

Cutolo M, Lahita RG

Research Laboratory, Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Università degli Studi di Genova, Viale Benedetto XV 6, 16132 Genova, Italy. mcutolo@unige.it

Sex hormones seem to play an important role as modulators and perpetuators of rheumatic disorders with autoimmune involvement, such as rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus. Estrogens are implicated in the immune response as enhancers of the humoral immunity. Sex hormones can exert local actions (paracrine) in the tissues in which they are formed; an accelerated peripheral metabolic conversion of upstream androgen precursors to estrogens has been well-assessed. Local effects of sex hormones in autoimmune rheumatic diseases seem to consist mainly of the modulation of cell proliferation and cytokine production. All of these data further suggest caution in exogenous estrogen administration in patients who have autoimmune diseases.

Published 10 January 2005 in Rheum Dis Clin North Am, 31(1): 19-27, vii.
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