In SLE patients, serum IFN-α induce monocytes to differentiate into IFN-dendritic cells (DCs), which then capture apoptotic cells or nucleosomes and present these autoantigens to CD4+ T cells, thus initiating the proliferation of autoreactive T cells as well as the differentiation of autoantibody-producing B cells (29, 30). Here, CD4 is linked to systemic lupus erythematosus.