People with lupus have overactive immune systems that attack their own tissue, causing inflammation throughout the body.

Around 70-80% of them will develop skin disease as part of their condition. And while it's thought that exposure to ultraviolet light triggers the rashes, scientists are not sure how it ties together with the systemic inflammation.

A Michigan Medicine study now brings more clarity, as researchers found that the normal-appearing skin of lupus patients contains the same inflammatory signals that are detected when the skin develops a rash—sometimes at even higher levels. The results are published in Science Translational Medicine.

"This really starts to piece the puzzle together of how inflammation seen in lupus patients may be related to skin exposures such as UV light," said J. Michelle Kahlenberg, M.D., Ph.D., senior author of the study and rheumatologist at University of Michigan Health. "We were able to see the properties of normal-appearing skin in unparalleled resolution, suggesting that the skin is primed for inflammatory reactions."

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