When this control set is used instead of our healthy subjects, the association of early-onset SLE barely missed significance level (P = 0.059) due to the small sample size of the controls; however, the OR was 1.47 (95%CI 0.99–2.19), and was slightly higher than the OR observed with our controls (1.44, Table 2 ).
With respect to SLE, significant increase of 14bp ins allele was observed in a study from Italy [ 17 ], and although other studies in South American [ 18 – 21 ] and Asian [ 22 ] populations did not reach statistical significance, many of them showed a trend toward increase in 14bp ins allele frequency and/or association with clinical subsets, and meta-analyses reported significant association with susceptibility to SLE [ 21 , 23 , 24 ].