Human blood samples and animals
All subjects (healthy donors: n = 18, active SLE patients: n =18)
recruited for this study were selected via a protocol approved by the
Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen
University and provided informed consent. All patients with SLE were
diagnosed based on the American College of Rheumatology (ACR)
classification criteria for SLE (Hochberg, 1997). The characteristics of
SLE patients are shown in supplemental Table S1.
All mice were housed in specific pathogen-free conditions, used in
accordance with the guidelines and approved by the Institutional Animal
Care and Use Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen
University.