Vitamin D levels and disease status in Texas patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Objectives: Previous studies have suggested a relationship between low serum levels of vitamin D and lupus. Vitamin D receptor ligands can mediate immunosuppressive effects and low levels of this hormone have been proposed as contributing to the immune activation in lupus and other autoimmune diseases. We sought to investigate the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in our patients with lupus.

Systemic lupus erythematosus: multiple immunological phenotypes in a complex genetic disease.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex polygenic autoimmune disease characterized by the presence of anti-nuclear autoantibodies (ANAs) that are often detectable years prior to the onset of clinical disease. The disease is associated with a chronic activation of the immune system, with the most severe forms progressing to inflammatory damage that can impact multiple organ systems in afflicted individuals. Current therapeutic strategies poorly control disease manifestations and are generally immunosuppressive.

Autoantibody profiling to identify individuals at risk for systemic lupus erythematosus.

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of lupus-related autoimmunity in a community-based cohort of over 3000 subjects, using a rheumatology registry as a comparison group. Measurements of ANA, anti-dsDNA and a panel of 8 other lupus-related autoantibodies were carried out in 176 subjects from the registry, including patients with SLE or with incomplete lupus (ILE) as well as in first degree relatives (FDRs) of these patients. Similar measurements were then carried out in 3470 samples from an unselected, urban community-based sample that included significant numbers of African-Americans and Hispanics.

Association of extensive polymorphisms in the SLAM/CD2 gene cluster with murine lupus.

Susceptibility to autoimmunity in B6.Sle1b mice is associated with extensive polymorphisms between two divergent haplotypes of the SLAM/CD2 family of genes. The B6.

Analyzing genomes: current realities and future possibilities.

The rapidly developing databases of genomic sequences of human and model organisms herald the beginning of a new era in genetic analysis. New, genome-based technologies are revealing important details in the structure and diversification of mammalian genomes and are fundamentally changing the field of genetics. In the future, genomic analysis will become a standard tool of geneticists and has the potential to revolutionize the field of immunogenetics.