Interestingly, analysis of CD4+ dataset revealed that the type I interferon signaling pathway, response to type I interferon and cellular response to type I interferon (P-value after FDR = 1.98 × 10-6) were the most significantly enriched GO terms (Table 2), indicating that type I interferon (IFN) -related genes in CD4+ T cells might play a role in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases including GD, RA, SLE and SSc. This evidence concerns the gene IFNA1 and autoimmune disease.