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Association of interleukin-18 and systemic lupus erythematosus

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Abstract

Interleukin-18 (IL-18), belongs to the IL-1 cytokine family, has a variety of effects on dendritic cell, T cell, natural killer cell. Previous studies have identified that IL-18 was associated with the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), wherein elevated expression of IL-18 was found in the serum of patients, and IL-18 polymorphisms with susceptibility to SLE were reported, suggesting that IL-18 may be therapeutically relevant to SLE. In this article, we will discuss the role of IL-18 in the pathogenesis of and its therapeutic potential in SLE based on current understandings.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partly supported by grants from the key program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (30830089), National Natural Science Foundation of China (81172764).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, People’s Republic of China

    Wang-Dong Xu, Hai-Feng Pan & Dong-Qing Ye

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  1. Wang-Dong Xu
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  2. Hai-Feng Pan
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  3. Dong-Qing Ye
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Correspondence to Dong-Qing Ye.

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Xu, WD., Pan, HF. & Ye, DQ. Association of interleukin-18 and systemic lupus erythematosus. Rheumatol Int 33, 3055–3057 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-012-2623-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-012-2623-x

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