As shown in Fig 1, the serum levels of Gal-9 were significantly higher in patients with SLE compared with the healthy controls (16.6 ng/ml [IQR; 3.6–59.7] versus 4.74 ng/ml [IQR; 3.0–9.5], p<0.0001). Here, LGALS9 is linked to systemic lupus erythematosus.