As costimulatory molecules are dysregulated in SLE cDCs [19–21, 58] and can lead to abnormal T and B cell proliferation [20, 24], we next analyzed the effects of E2 on the expression of the surface activation markers CD40, CD86, and CD80 on cDCs, measured by flow cytometry (Figure 6). Here, CD40 is linked to systemic lupus erythematosus.