The association of the BLK gene with SLE was replicated in Chinese Han.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Recently, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the region of B lymphoid tyrosine kinase (BLK) have been shown to be associated with SLE in Caucasian population. In this paper, we genotyped SNP rs2248932 in 1,396 SLE patients of Chinese Han and 4,362 ethnically matched control subjects by using the Sequenom MassArray system.