To date, autophagy in SLE T cells has been examined and found to be activated in the naïve CD4+ T cell compartment by Alessandri et al,5–8 and the total CD4+ population by Gros et al. 9, 10 However, autophagy in B cells, which are of fundamental importance in SLE, the hallmark of which is the production of pathogenic high affinity autoantibodies,11, 12 has not yet been studied in human autoimmune disease. This evidence concerns the gene CD4 and systemic lupus erythematosus.