FAS and systemic lupus erythematosus: For example, the Bax gene has been implicated in lupus nephritis and in apoptosis (37) suggesting that apoptosis dysregulation in SLE was affected by polymorphic variants in apoptotic-related genes including Fas, FasL, Bcl2, and Bax. While high expression of FasL expression contributes to increased apoptosis and to the breakdown of immune tolerance favoring autoantibody production and inflammation, low expression of the Bax protein was found to be protective in the SLE patients (69).