ArticleArthritis care & research2021
Associations Between Smoking and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus-Related Cytokines and Chemokines Among US Female Nurses.
Article in Arthritis care & research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Environmental exposures in autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases: a priority-based evidence map, immune-mechanism integration audit and research agenda.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Pooled it
- Ashes to Rashes: An Exploration of the Intersection Between Smoking and Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus.Biomolecules · 2025Review
- Understanding Sex Differences in Autoimmune Diseases: Immunologic Mechanisms.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Systemic lupus erythematosus: updated insights on the pathogenesis, diagnosis, prevention and therapeutics.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2025Review
- Environment and systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases: an overview and future directions.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- Researchers in rheumatology should avoid categorization of continuous predictor variables.BMC medical research methodology · 2023Article
- Association of a Combination of Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors With Reduced Risk of Incident Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2022Article
- Understanding the Concept of Pre-Clinical Autoimmunity: Prediction and Prevention of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Identifying Risk Factors and Developing Strategies Against Disease Development.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Review
- Pre-Clinical Autoimmunity in Lupus Relatives: Self-Reported Questionnaires and Immune Dysregulation Distinguish Relatives Who Develop Incomplete or Classified Lupus From Clinically Unaffected Relatives and Unaffected, Unrelated Individuals.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- Smoking associates with increased BAFF and decreased interferon-γ levels in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.Lupus science & medicine · 2021Article
- Smoking associates with distinct clinical phenotypes in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: a nationwide Danish cross-sectional study.Lupus science & medicine · 2021Article
- Potential for Antigen-Specific Tolerizing Immunotherapy in Systematic Lupus Erythematosus.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Review
- Epstein-Barr Functional Mimicry: Pathogenicity of Oncogenic Latent Membrane Protein-1 in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Autoimmunity.Frontiers in immunology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveSmoking has been associated with increased systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) risk, but the biologic basis for this association is unknown. Our objective was to investigate whether women's smoking was positively associated with SLE-associated proinflammatory chemokines/cytokines (stem cell factor [SCF], B lymphocyte stimulator [BLyS], interferon-γ-inducible 10-kd protein [IP-10], and interferon-α); or negatively associated with antiinflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10); and whether associations were modified by SLE-related autoantibody status.
methodsThe Nurses' Health Study (NHS, n = 121,700) and NHSII (n = 116,429) cohorts were begun in 1976 and 1989. In 1988-1990 (NHS) and 1996-1999 (NHSII), ~25% of participants donated blood samples. We identified 1,177 women without SLE with banked samples, and we tested by enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) for chemokines/cytokines as well as anti-Sm, anti-Ro/SSA, anti-La/SSB, and anti-RNP. Antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) were detected by HEp-2 cell indirect immunofluorescence, and anti-double-stranded DNA antibodies and were assayed by ELISA. Smoking was assessed until blood draw. Separate tobit and linear regression analyses, adjusted for potential confounders, modeled associations between smoking and log-transformed chemokine/cytokine concentrations. Analyses were stratified by autoantibody status. Effect estimates were calculated as ratios of geometric means expressed as percentage differences.
resultsAmong the 15% of current/recent versus 85% of past/never smokers, BLyS levels were 8.7% higher (P < 0.01) and were 24% higher (P < 0.0001) among those who were ANA positive. Current/recent smokers had IL-10 concentrations 46% lower (P < 0.01) than past/never smokers; each 10 pack-years of smoking was associated with a 17% decrease in IL-10 level (P < 0.001). Smoking was not associated with IP-10 or SCF.
conclusionElevated BLyS and lower IL-10 levels among current smokers, particularly among ANA-positive women, may be involved in SLE pathogenesis.
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Registered trials
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