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.