What is the Difference Between Organ-Specific and Systemic Autoimmune Disease

The key difference between organ-specific and systemic autoimmune disease is that organ-specific autoimmune disease affects a particular target organ in the body, while systemic autoimmune disease affects multiple organs in the body.

Normally, a healthy immune system defends the human body against different diseases and infections. But if the immune system malfunctions, it mistakenly attacks one’s own healthy cells, tissues, or organs. This type of disease is called an autoimmune disease. Autoimmune diseases can be classified according to several criteria, including the location of the autoimmune attack. Based on the location of the autoimmune attack, autoimmune diseases are of two types: organ-specific and systemic autoimmune disease.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is an Organ-Specific Autoimmune Disease
3. What is a Systemic Autoimmune Disease
4. Similarities – Organ-Specific and Systemic Autoimmune Disease
5. Organ-Specific vs. Systemic Autoimmune Disease in Tabular Form
6. Summary – Organ-Specific vs. Systemic Autoimmune Disease

What is an Organ-Specific Autoimmune Disease?

Organ-specific autoimmune disease is a type of autoimmune disease where the patient’s immune system targets a particular organ or tissue in the body. For example, in Graves’ disease, the thyroid gland in patients is targeted. In the case of type 1 diabetes, the pancreas in patients is targeted, while in the case of vitiligo, the skin of the patients is targeted. Moreover, in an organ-specific autoimmune disease, autoantigen is organ, tissue, or cell-specific. The autoimmune reaction is mediated by T cells and autoantibodies.

Organ-specific autoimmune disease is localized and often managed by organ-specific medical specialists, such as endocrinologists, gastroenterologists, neurologists, or rheumatologists. The other well-known examples of specific autoimmune diseases are Addison’s disease targeting the adrenal gland, autoimmune hepatitis targeting the liver, coeliac disease targeting the gastrointestinal tract, Crohn’s disease targeting the gastrointestinal tract, Guillain-Barre syndrome targeting the nervous system, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis targeting the thyroid gland, multiple sclerosis targeting the nervous system, myasthenia gravis targeting nerves and muscles, pernicious anemia targeting stomach, primary biliary cholangitis targeting the liver, sclerosing cholangitis targeting the liver, and ulcerative colitis targeting the gastrointestinal tract.

What is a Systemic Autoimmune Disease?

Systemic autoimmune disease is a type of autoimmune disease where pathological damage by the immune system occurs in many different organs and tissues of the patient’s body. In this type of autoimmune disease, autoantigens (DNA-protein complexes) are found in almost any type of cell in the body.

The autoantibodies mediate the autoimmune reaction. Some examples of systemic autoimmune diseases are rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), scleroderma, and dermatomyositis. Furthermore, these systemic autoimmune diseases are managed by rheumatologists.

What are the Similarities Between Organ-Specific and Systemic Autoimmune Diseases?

• Organ-specific and systemic autoimmune diseases are two types of autoimmune diseases based on the location of the autoimmune attack.
• In both autoimmune diseases, autoantigens and autoantibodies are involved.
• Both autoimmune diseases can bring about life-threatening complications.
• Special medical professionals treat both.

What is the Difference Between Organ-Specific and Systemic Autoimmune Disease?

Organ-specific autoimmune disease affects a particular target organ in the body, while systemic autoimmune disease affects multiple organs in the body. Thus, this is the key difference between organ-specific and systemic autoimmune disease. Furthermore, organ-specific autoimmune disease is a less serious condition, while systemic autoimmune disease is a more serious condition.

The infographic below presents the differences between organ-specific and systemic autoimmune disease in tabular form for side-by-side comparison.

Summary – Organ-Specific vs. Systemic Autoimmune Disease

Autoimmune diseases are medical conditions where the immune system mistakenly damages the healthy cells in the body. There are more than 80 different types of autoimmune diseases that affect a wide range of body parts in the human body. Organ-specific and systemic autoimmune diseases are two types of autoimmune diseases based on the location of the autoimmune attack. Organ-specific autoimmune disease affects a particular target organ in the body, while systemic autoimmune disease affects multiple organs in the body. So, this is the key difference between organ-specific and systemic autoimmune disease.

Reference:

1. “Organ-Specific Autoimmune Disease.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.
2. “Systemic Autoimmune Disease.” ScienceDirect.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Fimmu-12-744396-g001” By Katie Glover, Deepakkumar Mishra, and Thakur Raghu Raj Singh – Glover K, Mishra D and Singh TRR (2021) Epidemiology of Ocular Manifestations in Autoimmune Disease. Front. Immunol. 12:744396. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.744396 (CC BY 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Rheumatoid arthritis – Swollen finger joint” By Scientific Animations (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia