Association between AhR in B cells and systemic lupus erythematosus with renal damage

Renal damage is one of the typical clinical manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and few effective markers can be used to predict SLE with renal damage. Additionally, the relationship among AhR, B cells and SLE with renal damage is poorly understood.

A case-control study was performed, and the clinical and laboratory data were acquired from medical records. Flow cytometry was used to analyze the expression of AhR in B cells.

Both the proportion of B cells in peripheral blood lymphocytes and AhR in B cells were significantly higher in SLE patients than in healthy controls. AhR in B cells was negatively correlated with complement 3 and 4 levels but was positively correlated with SLEDAI-2 K, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein and absolute lymphocyte count. Furthermore, more SLE patients suffered from renal damage and arthritis in the high-AhR B-cell group than in the low-AhR B-cell group. Interestingly, AhR in B cells was significantly increased in SLE with renal damage compared with SLE without renal damage, but no significant difference was observed between SLE with arthritis and SLE without arthritis. In addition, the area under the curve for AhR in B cells was 0.815, and its optimal cut-off level was 3.05 %, which provided a 83.3 % sensitivity and a 70.0 % specificity in predicting SLE with renal damage.

AhR in B cells was correlated with SLE disease activity, and it may be a potential marker for predicting SLE with renal damage.