Stromal cells are central for recruitment and modulation of immune cells through their secretion of chemokines and cytokines.38–40 We found that the CXCL8 and CXCL1 gene expression was upregulated in decidual stromal cells from some of the SLE pregnancies compared with controls, which corresponded to the interindividual variation in protein levels of these two chemokines in intervillous blood. The gene discussed is CXCL8; the disease is systemic lupus erythematosus.