It has been proposed in SLE that DCs commonly come into contact with apoptotic debris and therefore develop into a mature phenotype and produce higher amounts of IL-6; in turn the higher level of IL-6 production results in the differentiation of naïve CD4+ T cells into Th17 cells, when in fact they may have been converted into regulatory T cells under normal conditions [199]. This evidence concerns the gene IL6 and systemic lupus erythematosus.