Objective: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease characterized by the loss of immune tolerance to self-antigens, dysregulated autoantibody production, and multiple clinical manifestations. Recently, the autoreactive IgE has been found to play a functional role in amplifying loss of self-tolerance through basophil-mediated autoantibody production in SLE, and the overall levels of IgE autoantibodies may serve as indicators of active disease. Therefore, we are

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... going to study the IgE levels in lupus nephritis (LN) patients. Methods: We measured the C3, C4, ANA, ds-DNA and IgE levels in 157 biopsyproven LN patients in our center, and descriptive analysis was used to study the prevalence of IgE in LN patients. Data were presented as mean AE SD. Results: Approximately 38% (60/157) of all LN subjects studied have a higher level of IgE ( > 100 ng/ml), ranging from 106.0 ng/ml to over 5000 ng/ml (736.4 AE 1081.0 ng/ml). The mean age of the 60 subjects are 36.7 AE 14.0 years. Among the 60 patients, the average titer of ANA is 223.7 AE 149.5, and more than 50% presented with hypocomplementemia [C3 50.4 AE 24.3 mg/L (61.7%); C4 9.2 AE 5.9 mg/L (55%); C3+C4 (51.7%)]. Twenty-two (37.7%) of the 60 LN subjects were positive for anti-dsDNA. Conclusion: These results indicate that increasing IgE levels in LN patients is very common, and IgE plays an important role in LN. http://dx.