Table 2: Genetic studies investigating the association between several SNPs and both lupus nephritis and specific auto-antibodies in different ethnic populations.

Author No. of SLE patients No. of healthy controls Ethnic origin Gene/SNP studied Associations Nephritis Autoantibodies Taylor et al. [38] 1396 2560 North Americans (European descent) STAT4/ rs7574865 Anti-dsDNA/ Kawasaki et al. [39] 308 306 Japanese STAT4/ rs7574865 Anti-dsDNA/ Qin et al. [40] 190 182 Chinese IRF5/ rs2004640T NS Vuong et al. [41] 272 307 Swedish -STAT4/ rs10181656 −NS −NM -IRF5/ rs729302 rs4728142 rs2004640 rs3807306 rs10954213 rs11770589 rs2280714 −NS −NM - TRAF1-C5/ rs3761847 −NS −NM -TGFB1 / rs6957 rs2241715 rs1982073 rs1800469 −NS −NM Li et al. [32] 748 750 Chinese (Northern Han) -STAT4 / rs7574865 −NS −NS - IRF7/ KIAA1542 -Anti-SSB/ rs2246614† −NS −NS Luan et al. [42] 675 678 Chinese STAT4/ rs7582694 −NS −NS Sigurdsson et al. [24] 695 — Swedish STAT4/ rs7582694 0.04 Anti-dsDNA/

*Severe nephritis (ESRD or severe progressing renal disease in renal biopsy), .**Statistical significance found only in the case-control arm of the study, whereas, in the case-only arm of the study, results both for nephritis and anti-dsDNA reached no statistical significance. ***While a statistically significant association with lupus nephritis was detected, no association was found with any specific clinical finding or histological type of nephritis. †These 2 SNPs of the IRF7/KIAA1542 gene were not associated with SLE but only with specific SLE subphenotypes such as nephritis and anti-SSB. NS: not statistically significant association. NM: not measured. The rest of the abbreviations used are explained in the text.