Interestingly, we also found that the NIK and p52 protein levels were markedly increased, along with decreased p100 protein levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from SLE patients with Peli1low (hereafter called SLE-PL) as compared with that from SLE patient with Peli1high mRNA expression (hereafter called SLE-PH) (Fig. 4h), suggesting that Peli1 may also negatively regulate noncanonical pathway during human SLE pathogenesis. Here, PELI1 is linked to systemic lupus erythematosus.