Objective To investigate the expressions of miR-17 and miR-20a in CD4+ T cells from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and their correlations with disease activity.Methods CD4+ T cells were isolated from the venous blood of 30 patients with SLE and 18 healthy human controls.RNA was extracted from the CD4+T cells,and real-time fluorescence-based quantitative PCR (qPCR) was performed to determine the expression levels of miR-17 and miR-20a.The intergroup comparison of miR-17 and miR-20a expression levels was done using t test and Mann-Whitney test,and the correlations of miR-17 and miR-20a expressions with clinical parameters were assessed using Pearson or Spearman correlation coefficients.Results The patients with SLE showed increased expression levels (2-△c~) of miR-17 and miR-20a compared with the healthy controls (0.24 ± 0.08 vs.0.15 ± 0.06 for miR-17,0.19 ± 0.10 vs.0.12 ± 0.09 for miR-20a,both P ＜ 0.05).The miR-17 and miR-20a expression levels were also significantly higher in patients with active SLE than in those with inactive SLE and the healthy controls (0.27 ± 0.07 vs.0.20 ± 0.05 and 0.16 ± 0.08 for miR-17,0.22 ± 0.10 vs.0.15-0.07 and 0.13 ± 0.09 for miR-20a,all P ＜ 0.05),but similar between the patients with inactive SLE and healthy controls (both P ＞ 0.05).The expression levels of both miR-17 and miR-20a were positively correlated with SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI)(r =0.45,0.38,respectively,both P ＜ 0.05) and anti-dsDNA antibody level (r =0.54,0.46,respectively,both P ＜0.05),but negatively correlated with serum C3 levels (r =-0.43,-0.42,respectively,both P ＜ 0.05).Condusions The expressions of miR-17 and miR-20a are increased in CD4+ T cells from patients with SLE,and correlated with the disease activity in SLE.