Kids Kidney Research

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a disease with inflammation that affects different organs in children and adults, which is treated by suppressing the immune system and whose cause is unclear.

However, it is recognised that SLE is caused in part by a type of blood cell, the B lymphocyte, activated by infection, cross reacting with patients’ own tissues and causing inflammation and disease (i.e. the immune cells start to fight self, they become ‘autoimmune’). 

Although infection may be involved in triggering SLE, it is not known whether infection plays a role in the progress and severity of disease. This is a particularly important issue for children who develop disease at the same time as their immune system is learning how to respond to new infections.

The objective of this project is to provide the background work to look at how these autoimmune B cells change over time in children early in the course of their disease and then to look at the environmental factors that may influence this. It is hoped that the information gained from this pilot study will enable us to gain funding for a project grant to understand the role of autoimmune B cells in childhood-onset SLE and the environmental factors that may influence the progression of this disease