Patients and controls
This was a cross-sectional study conducted at the Instituto Nacional de
Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, a tertiary care center in
Mexico City. We included 15 patients with SLE in long-term remission
without treatment (PR-SLE). Prolonged remission was defined as a
clinical SLEDAI of 0 (regardless of serological activity, i.e.,
anti-dsDNA antibodies and/or hypocomplementemia) and being free of
immunosuppressive or antimalarial treatment for at least 10 years
[8]. As controls, we included 15 patients with clinically active SLE
(Act-SLE) with a clinical SLEDAI 2K ≥3 (excluding hypocomplementemia and
high titers of anti-dsDNA) and 29 healthy subjects (HS). All the healthy
controls were confirmed negative for antinuclear antibodies and with no
personal or familial history of autoimmune diseases. All patients with
SLE met the SLICC 2012 classification criteria [9].