title: Upregulated PD-1 Expression Is Associated with the Development of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, but Not the PD-1.1 Allele of the PDCD1 Gene.
abstract: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem autoimmune disease with complicated genetic inheritance. Programmed death 1 (PD-1), a negative T cell regulator to maintain peripheral tolerance, induces negative signals to T cells during interaction with its ligands and is therefore a candidate gene in the development of SLE. In order to examine whether expression levels of PD-1 contribute to the pathogenesis of SLE, 30 patients with SLE and 30 controls were recruited and their PD-1 expression levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were measured via flow cytometry and quantitative real-time-reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Also, whether PD-1 expression levels are associated with the variant of the SNP rs36084323 and the SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) was studied in this work. The PD-1 expression levels of SLE patients were significantly increased compared with those of the healthy controls. The upregulated PD-1 expression levels in SLE patients were greatly associated with SLEDAI scores. No significant difference was found between PD-1 expression levels and SNP rs36084323. The results suggest that increased expression of PD-1 may correlate with the pathogenesis of SLE, upregulated PD-1 expression may be a biomarker for SLE diagnosis, and PD-1 inhibitor may be useful to SLE treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 188 Shizi Road, Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Qingqing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Jiao
authors.affiliation: Clinical Immunology Laboratory, First Affiliated Hospital, Soochow University, 708 Renmin Road, Suzhou 215007, China.
authors.forename: Cuiping
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 188 Shizi Road, Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Ziliang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 188 Shizi Road, Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 188 Shizi Road, Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Miaomiao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 188 Shizi Road, Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 188 Shizi Road, Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Tingting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Soochow University Affiliated Children's Hospital, 303 Jingde Road, Suzhou 215003, China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Soochow University Affiliated Children's Hospital, 303 Jingde Road, Suzhou 215003, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 188 Shizi Road, Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 188 Shizi Road, Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Fumin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 188 Shizi Road, Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Licai
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, First Hospital, Peking University, 8 Xishenku Road, Beijing 100034, China.
authors.forename: Zuotao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 188 Shizi Road, Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Qihong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Qian