Effect of Pubertal Hormone Changes on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in childhood usually attacks children as they enter puberty. Hormones change in an orderly pattern during puberty, making the study of lupus in this period of life ideal to understand how hormones affect autoimmunity and disease activity in lupus. Dr. Kathleen O'Neil, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center has received a Lupus Foundation of America National Research Program Grant to support a multi-center longitudinal observational study of girls with prepubertal onset SLE as they approach and pass through puberty, measuring hormone levels, autoantibodies and markers of lupus activity.

In this video, recorded during the 2010 American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. O'Neil discusses the objectives of the study, how it will be conducted, the potential benefits in our understanding of lupus, and how in the future the disease might be treated and controlled in children.