Interferon-induced protein 44 is correlated with clinical features of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus / 中华风湿病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the expression of interferon-induced protein 44 (IFI44) gene in the leukocytes of the peripheral blood samples from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and to evaluate the relationship between the expression level and disease activity. Methods Mononuclear cells in the peripheral blood samples from 100 SLE patients were compared with those of 40 disease controls and 40 healthy donors (HD) and the expression of the IFI44 was evaluated by quantitative real-time PCR.Comparisons between groups were performed with ANOVA, and the correlation analysis between the level of expression was higher in SLE patients than disease controls and healthy donors (26.8±5.3, 7.4±2.7, 5.2±2.0,respectively) (P=0.0012, P=0.005), but no difference was found between disease controls and healthy donors. Mild disease activity and the SLE patients with stable disease (63.1±22.4, 28.0±7.2, 9.2±1.8, respectively)and 24 hours urine protein level (r=0.42, P=0.000). Conclusion IFI44 is demonstrated to be highly expressed in SLE patients. The level of IFI44 may be a promising candidate biomarker for identifying SLE activity.