To the first anonymous poster, I am sorry you are suffering from this difficult disease. After reading your post, I did some web searching and did not find a specific article that points to HS being auto-immune but notes some connection. This article attempted to relate HS to a variety of other conditions from irritable bowel to skin cancer.
The article is called Comorbidities of hidradenitis suppurativa (acne inversa) and in it the searched through numerous studies. They concluded that
Two major groups of disorders are possibly comorbid with HS, namely chronic hyperergic inflammatory diseases and acquired and inherited follicular occlusion disorders. Interestingly, the reported inflammatory diseases and acquired follicular occlusion disorders have been previously associated with autoimmune phenomena, while currently with hyperactive neutrophils implicating neutrophil dysfunction.144Recently, a group of autoinflammatory disorders has been identified characterized by recurrent noninfectious inflammatory episodes in the absence of pathogens, autoantibodies or antigen-specific T cells.145 These disorders are caused by primary dysfunction of the innate immune system, without evidence of adaptive immune dysregulation.
As in many conditions, there seems to be a relationship to autoimmune disorders but I don't think they can conclude it as a direct cause.
Typically, people do not have a single pure condition of any illness. There is almost a layering of illnesses that occurs I believe that pushes a person towards some type of outbreak or tendency. The same condition can be different in different people so each has different versions of the same illness making it even harder to figure out what is going on.
I would be more than happy to interview you and anyone you want for a follow up article about life with HS. If you email me by clicking on my name you can give me a way to contact you through your email.
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To the first anonymous poster, I am sorry you are suffering from this difficult disease. After reading your post, I did some web searching and did not find a specific article that points to HS being auto-immune but notes some connection. This article attempted to relate HS to a variety of other conditions from irritable bowel to skin cancer.
The article is called Comorbidities of hidradenitis suppurativa (acne inversa) and in it the searched through numerous studies. They concluded that
Two major groups of disorders are possibly comorbid with HS, namely chronic hyperergic inflammatory diseases and acquired and inherited follicular occlusion disorders. Interestingly, the reported inflammatory diseases and acquired follicular occlusion disorders have been previously associated with autoimmune phenomena, while currently with hyperactive neutrophils implicating neutrophil dysfunction.144Recently, a group of autoinflammatory disorders has been identified characterized by recurrent noninfectious inflammatory episodes in the absence of pathogens, autoantibodies or antigen-specific T cells.145 These disorders are caused by primary dysfunction of the innate immune system, without evidence of adaptive immune dysregulation.
The link is
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3084959/
As in many conditions, there seems to be a relationship to autoimmune disorders but I don't think they can conclude it as a direct cause.
Typically, people do not have a single pure condition of any illness. There is almost a layering of illnesses that occurs I believe that pushes a person towards some type of outbreak or tendency. The same condition can be different in different people so each has different versions of the same illness making it even harder to figure out what is going on.
I would be more than happy to interview you and anyone you want for a follow up article about life with HS. If you email me by clicking on my name you can give me a way to contact you through your email.
take care,
Michele
April 16, 2012 - 12:11pmThis Comment
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