Lupus
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What is Lupus?
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (pronounced - LOO-puhss ur-uh-thee-muh-TOH-suhss), or SLE, is the form of the disease that most people are referring to when they say "lupus." The word "systemic" means the disease can affect many parts of the body.
Lupus is one of many disorders of the immune system known as autoimmune diseases. Your immune system is the part of the body that fights off viruses, bacteria, and other germs - "foreign invaders" like the flu. A healthy immune system produces proteins called antibodies and specific cells called lymphocytes that help fight and destroy these invaders.
In autoimmune diseases, the immune system turns against parts of the body it is designed to protect. It cannot tell the difference between these foreign invaders and your body's healthy tissues. In lupus, your immune system creates autoantibodies, which attack and destroy healthy tissue. Autoantibodies ("auto" means self) are blood proteins that act against the body's own parts. These autoantibodies cause inflammation, pain, and damage in various parts of the body.
The most common type of autoantibody that develops in people with lupus is called an antinuclear antibody (ANA) because it reacts with parts of the cell's nucleus (command center). Doctors and scientists do not yet understand all of the factors that cause inflammation and tissue damage in lupus, and researchers are actively exploring them.
Although lupus can affect almost any organ system, including the joints, skin, kidneys, heart, lungs, blood vessels, and brain, the disease, for most people, affects only a few parts of the body. For example, one person with lupus may have swollen knees and fever. Another person may be tired all the time or have kidney trouble. Someone else may have rashes.
References:
1) The National Women's Health Information Center - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - Office on Women's Health - May 2008 - www.4woman.gov
2) National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) - Information Clearinghouse - National Institutes of Health - Department of Health and Human Services - NIH Publication No. 03-4178 - September 1997 - Revised August 2003 - www.niams.nih.gov
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