This will be a case control study, where cases of SLE will be compared to controls of healthy volunteers to assess risk factors. As these healthy volunteers are providing samples solely for research purposes, there is no standard of care for these volunteers, with the exception of a positive HIV result during screening. The Department of Genetic Medicine will enroll healthy controls and the Hospital for Special Surgery will enroll subjects with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) for a comparative analysis of the two cohorts (Table I). Laboratory testing on all blood samples will be done at the Hospital for Special Surgery.
Table I. Site Recruitment1
WCMC Healthy Subjects 20 HSS Subjects with SLE 20 Total 40
