RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To analyze the expression and its promoter methylation of chemokine CXC ligand 14 (CXCL14) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). METHODS: The RNAs of PBMCs from 28 SLE patients and 20 healthy controls were isolated and reversely transcribed into cDNAs. Using GAPDH as the internal reference, the levels of CXCL14 ex-pression were detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The correlation between CXCL14 expression and the clinic pathological fe atures of SLE were further analyzed. DNA methylation was analyzed by bisulfite sequencing PCR (BSP). RESULTS: Our data indicated that the level of CXCL14 in the PBMC of SLE patients was statistically lower than that in healthy controls (P < 0.05). Further analysis showed that CXCL14 expression was negatively correlated with anti-Sj gren syndrome B antibody(anti-SSB antibody, P < 0.01) and albuminuria(P < 0.05). However, CXCL14 expression was not significantly correlated with the indexes of SLE activity, renal damage, the level of anti-ds-DNA antibodies, complement C3 and C-reactive protein. In addition, we further demonstrated that the CXCL14 promoter hypermethylation expres-sion was significant higher than healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: Down-regulated of CXCL14 expression in PBMC maybe involved in the occur-rence or development of SLE disease. The loss of CXCL14 expression was regulated by promoter hypermethylation.
