Assessment of Association between Duffy Blood Group Phenotypes and Susceptibility to Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and its Severity

Background: Considering the role of Duffy antigenic system expression on RBCs as chemokines for inflammatory cytokines, expression of Duffy antigens as different phenotypes was studied in a group of patients with SLE. The association between different phenotypes of Duffy antigens and occurrence of SLE and its severity was assessed.  Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 100 patients diagnosed as SLE using the “Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics 2012 (SLICC) classification” criteria and 100 age-matched healthy subjects as control from April to June 2017. Duffy blood group status was determined in both groups. The patients were categorized into three groups of mild, moderate and severe according to “Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index 2000 (SLEDAI-2K)” scores. Results: The results of this study showed no significant association between the three different phenotypes of Duffy antigen system and increased risk of SLE or its severity. Conclusion: The results of the current study did not approve of any association between three different Duffy phenotypes and increased risk of SLE or its severity.