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Skin, Mucosa and Menopause pp 359–381Cite as

Autoimmune Skin Diseases: Role of Sex Hormones, Vitamin D, and Menopause

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Abstract

Autoimmune diseases that affect the skin occur predominantly in women and are classified as rheumatic diseases. They include systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, dermatomyositis, Sjögren’s syndrome, and scleroderma. Data support the idea that estrogen elevates autoantibodies and T helper 2 responses and promotes fibrosis by stimulating profibrotic interleukin-4 and transforming growth factor-β and fibroblast growth factor, all of which contribute to increased skin inflammation in rheumatic diseases in women. Epidemiological data indicate that more than 60 % of postmenopausal women have vitamin D insufficiency and 16 % are vitamin D deficient. Vitamin D deficiency is far more common among women with rheumatic diseases than controls and is associated with worse disease severity and cutaneous manifestations. This chapter describes our current understanding of the role of sex hormones, vitamin D, and the effect of menopause on the development of autoimmune skin diseases.

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Funding

This work was supported by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL111938) and an American Heart Association Grant-in-Aid (12GRNT12050000).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA

    DeLisa Fairweather PhD

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  1. DeLisa Fairweather PhD
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Correspondence to DeLisa Fairweather PhD .

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  1. Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

    Miranda A. Farage

  2. Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

    Kenneth W. Miller

  3. School of Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Nancy Fugate Woods

  4. Department of Dermatology, University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco, California, USA

    Howard I. Maibach

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Fairweather, D. (2015). Autoimmune Skin Diseases: Role of Sex Hormones, Vitamin D, and Menopause. In: Farage, M., Miller, K., Fugate Woods, N., Maibach, H. (eds) Skin, Mucosa and Menopause. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44080-3_26

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