Systemic sclerosis: New insights in autoimmunity

The strong female predilection of systemic sclerosis, especially in women a fter their childbearing years, and the clinical and histopathological simil arities with chronic graft-versus-host disease make systemic sclerosis an i nteresting subject of debate. Recent studies concerning the pathogenesis of this disease demonstrated the persistence of fetal cells in the maternal c irculation in a majority of female patients. How or whether microchimerism is involved in the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis remains to be elucida ted. The present paper reviews the recent findings on the subject.