In the current study, the percentages of functional CD8+ and CD8- lytic antigen CMVpp52-responding T-cells was found reduced in SLE patients, which is opposite of results by Larsen et al and Kang et al. However, the differences might be due to the use of different CMV antigens (pp65 as opposed to pp52) and also differences in experimental setups (PBMCs and MHCI tetramers as opposed to whole blood samples with various stimulation times), and cohorts which are all relatively small and might represent different subgroups of patients. This evidence concerns the gene CD8A and systemic lupus erythematosus.