Study On MRNA Expression Of TRAF3 And TRAF4 In Peripheral Blood Leucocytes Of SLE Patients

Objective: To investigate whether the mRNA expression of TRAF3 and TRAF4 in peripheral blood leucocytes of SLE patients is abnormal and to determine whether the TRAF3 and TRAF4 mRNA expression relate with the SLE activity index and some clinical indexs.Method: 25 female SLE patients were collected from August 2004 to February 2005 in internal medicine of our hospital. All of them fulfil the American Colleg of Rheumatology classification criteria for SLE . The SLEDAI scores of these patients vary from 4-26; 15 healthy controls were female. Venous blood was collected with EDTAK₂ anticoagulant and peripheral blood leucocytes obtained by density centrifugation and RBC lysis solution. Total RNA was generated from samples using Trizol and 2 μg RNA was reverse-transcribed into cDNA using M-MLV reverse transcriptase. Using TRAF3 and TRAF4 gene-specific primers to PCR . β-actin was amplified as a reference for quantification of TRAF3 mRNA and TRAF4 mRNA . Compare the TRAF3 and TRAF4 mRNA expression between SLE patients with healthy controls. The clinical indexs were provided by the clinical laboratory of our hospital. Analyse the correlations between SLEDAIscores and clinical indexs with TRAF3 and TRAF4 mRNA expression. Result: 1 % The level of mRNA expression of TRAF3 in peripheral blood leucocytes has no difference in SLE patients and healthy controls; 2^ There are no correlations between the expression of TRAF3 mRNA with SLEDAI scores , ESR, C3, C4, CD4 , CD8 and serum immuloglobulin (including IgGN IgMU IgA); 3n The expression of TRAF4 mRNA in peripheral blood leucocytes of SLE patients is lower than that of normal control (P<0.05 ); 4> There are no correlations between the expression of TRAF4 mRNA with the SLEDAI scores, ESR, C3, C4, CD4, CD8 and serum immuloglobulin. Conclusion: The level of mRNA expression of TRAF3 in peripheral blood leucocytes has no difference in SLE patients and healthy controls . The expression of TRAF4 mRNA is lower in peripheral blood leucocytes of the SLE patients than that of normal controls, which may participate in the occurrence and development of SLE.