text: STAT4 is involved in several autoimmune and cancer diseases in animal models humans, significantly in the disease progression and pathology. STAT4 were significantly increased in patients with colitis ulcerative and skin T cells of psoriatic patients. Moreover, STAT4 -/- mice developed less severe experimental autoimmune encephalo-myelitis (EAE) than the wild type mice.
  Intronic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)  mostly in third intron of the STAT4 has shown to be associated with immune dysregulation and autoimmunity including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)  and rheumatoid arthritis as well as Sjögren's disease (SD), systemic sclerosis, psoriasis and also type-1 diabetes. High incident of STAT4 genetic polymorphisms and susceptibility to autoimmune diseases is a reason to consider the STAT4 as  general autoimmune disease susceptibility locus.