Abstract: Objective To investigate the susceptible gene loci of SLE.Methods Susceptible loci of chromosome16were found in systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE).According to our previous linkage map-ping and gene chip data,four genes named OAZ,CARD15,DNAJA2 and IL-4R were chosen as candidate genes for gene expression research.mRNA extracted from whole blood of 42SLE patients and 36 normal controls were reversely transcipted to cDNA.Then Taqman probe and primers were added to perform real-time PCR in ABI Prism^® 7900HT sequence detection system.Housekeeping gene GAPDH was used as a control.Results OAZ and CARD15gene expression was significantly higher in SLE patients than those in normal controls(P<0.001),while IL-4R expression was lower than that in normal controls(P<0.01).No significant difference was found in DNAJA2 gene expression.Conclusion There are several disease associ-ated genes of chromosome 16 in SLE patients in which OAZ and CARD15 expression is high and IL-4R expression is low.These genes may participate in different pathways in SLE pathogenesis.

Key words: Lupus erythematosus,systemic, Chromosomes,human,pair16, Gene expression