1 The General Infirmary, Leeds 1, England
In his generous reference to our work,1,2 Dr. Childs3 has unfortunately misinterpreted us, and we should be grateful if you would allow us to make certain corrections. Sex differences in spontaneous autoimmunity are complex and they can arise in several different, but often distinguishable, ways.1,2,4-6 We can summarize our viewpoint briefly under four headings:
1.Genotype: Spontaneous disturbed-tolerance autoimmune diseases are strictly confined to specific genotypes. A predominance of predisposed females points to one or more dominant X-linked alleles, and, conversely, a predominance of predisposed males points to recessive X-linked factors.