Figure 4.

mRNA levels of human β-defensin 2 (hBD-2) in the whole blood of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients and healthy controls. mRNA levels were extremely low in both patients and healthy controls. mRNA levels were analysed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), normalized using glyceraldehyde 3 phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) as the reference gene (n = 5 and n = 15 for the healthy controls and the SLE patients, respectively; mean ± standard error of the mean). All experiments were performed in triplicate. Results are presented as fold increase compared with the healthy group.