With regard to the apoptosis data, at baseline, SLE patients exhibited a significant increase in the percentage of apoptotic CD4+ T lymphocytes (mean%±SD%, 32.35%±3.75% vs. 8.09%±0.26%; p=0.001) and an insignificant increase in the percentage of apoptotic CD8 T lymphocytes (mean%±SD%, 9.53%±0.47% vs. 8.29%±0.40%; p=0.07) when compared with healthy children (Table 4). This evidence concerns the gene CD8A and systemic lupus erythematosus.