Identification of macrophage-related candidate genes in lupus nephritis using bioinformatics analysis

Lupus nephritis (LN) is a chronic autoimmune disorder. Here we try to identify the candidate genes in macrophages related to LN. We performed a systematic search in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database for microarray in human mononuclear cells and mouse macrophages of LN. The results of clustering and venn analysis of different GEO datasets showed that 8 genes were up-regulated and 2 genes down-regulated in samples from both human and mouse LN. The data from gene network and GO analysis revealed that CD38 and CCL2 were localized in the core of the network. Immunofluorescence staining showed that CD38 expression was markedly increased in macrophages from kidneys with LN. Our study identifies the gene expression profile for macrophages and demonstrated the induction of CCL2 and CD38 in macrophages from patients with LN. However, regarding the limited patient number included in this study, the results are preliminary and more studies are still needed to further decipher the macrophage-related candidate genes for the pathogenesis of LN.