In contrast to the conflicting CD8+ memory T cell phenotype data, there seems to be a consensus in the literature that there is an increase in activated human leukocyte antigen-DR (HLA-DR)+ [30,49,52,65,67] and CD38+ CD8+ T cells [56] in the peripheral blood in SLE, particularly in active disease. Here, CD8A is linked to systemic lupus erythematosus.