2012 Pilot Grant Awardee, Johns Hopkins
Dr. Jennifer Mammen, Instructor in Endocrinology, is studying the ways in which gender affects autoimmune disorders, or conditions that occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy body tissue. These disorders affect women more frequently than men, but the specific effects of gender are not clear. Dr. Mammen and her team focus their research on thyroid disease, which shows an overwhelming female bias. Biphasic thyroiditis, for example, frequently appears in women after pregnancy. Characterized by lymphocytic gland infiltration, this postpartum thyroid disease usually occurs in women with anti-thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) antibodies. Dr. Mammen’s team has found that interferon (IFNa) causes high rates of biphasic thyroiditis in women more often than men at a ratio of 8:1. This suggests the direct role of interferon in causing or spreading thyroid autoimmunity. Dr. Mammen’s team is using both in vitro and in vivo techniques to study the effects of inflammatory activation (mediated by interferons) on the autoimmune target itself. The study looks at gender-specific variability in the expression of thyroid genes such as those regulated by IFNa and/or estradiol.