Comment on Why Do Women Have More Autoimmune Diseases? Study Points to X Chromosome
DemBoSain@midwest.social 3 months ago
As a non-biologist, this is completely foreign to me.
If the immune system is attacking the Xist proteins, wouldn’t this reactivate the disabled X chromosome?
Do the Xist proteins always disable the same X chromosome in all women (i.e. always the 1st one, and never the 2nd, or vice versa?) How are the two differentiated?
silence7@slrpnk.net 3 months ago
The immune system doesn’t operate inside a cell’s nucleus; so it doesn’t reactivate the disable X chromosome. So it doesn’t reactivate the X chromosome, but kills cells which display bits of the Xist protein on their exterior (cells do this with proteins so that they can show the immune system whether they’re infected)
I don’t know how which X chromosome to disable is determined.
DemBoSain@midwest.social 3 months ago
Wow, yeah, I’m completely lost. Maybe my first genetics class shouldn’t be the New York Times.