When the correlation between percentages of IL-23R+ T cells and IL-17+ T cells was analyzed, a significant and positive correlation was found in percentages of CD4+IL-23R+ T cells and CD4+IL-17+ T cells at Day 3 in the active SLE group (r = 0.7692, P = 0.0021) and in total SLE cases (r = 0.5601, P = 0.0016) (Figure 4a, c). This evidence concerns the gene IL17A and systemic lupus erythematosus.