Inflammatory Expression Profiles in Monocyte to Macrophage Differentiation amongst Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Healthy Controls with and without an Atherosclerosis Phenotype

To examine mononuclear cell gene expression profiles in patients with and without SLE and subsets with and without atherosclerosis Monocytes were obtained from 20 patients with SLE and 16 healthy controls and were in vitro differentiated into macrophages. Subjects also underwent laboratory and imaging studies of the coronary arteries, carotid arteries, and aorta to evaluate for subclinical atherosclerosis.