Consistent with the findings of increased percentages of CD138+ cells after ALD stimulation, the real-time PCR analysis revealed that ALD-DNA stimulation significantly increased XBP1 and to a lesser extent, Blimp-1 mRNA expression in LPS stimulated lupus B cells (Figure 5B, P<0.05%) but not normal BALB/c B cells (Figure 4B). The gene discussed is XBP1; the disease is systemic lupus erythematosus.