EFFECT OF SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHMATOSUS IN MINORITIES

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The purpose of this project is to study the inter-relationship between demographic, socioeconomic, and genetic factors in determining the course and early outcome in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). This study has centers in Houston and Galveston, Texas as well in Puerto Rico, which in addition to following African-American and Caucasian patients with SLE, follows Hispanic patients at 2 different locations: Texas and Puerto Rico. An added dimension of the LUMINA study is the PROFILE sub-study. PROFILE is Project 4 of the PO1 Program Project in the genetics of SLE at UAB. Its goal is to determine the role that genetics plays in the outcome of lupus. As such, not only is patient DNA obtained to investigate genes related to SLE, but parents and siblings are being recruited (TRIO families) so that their DNA may be analyzed as well. Results to date indicate that Hispanic and African-American patients have more active SLE, at an earlier age of onset, and a less favorable socioeconomic-demographic structure (worse among Hispanics than African-American), which predispose them to a less favorable natural history. [Alarc¿n, 1999]