Overall, our assessment of the effects of sCTLA-4 blockade on anti-peptide PBMC responses from healthy and lupus donors indicates that PBMC from the lupus cohort were more sensitive to changes in IL-10 levels following removal of the suppressive effects of sCTLA-4 suggesting that, nevertheless, sCTLA-4 suppresses effector T-cell responses independent of the profile of cytokine(s) it is producing. The gene discussed is IL10; the disease is systemic lupus erythematosus.