First, we found an increased frequency of CD11c + B cells irrespective of the positivity for Tbet when SLE were compared to HD, which suggests that other factors in addition to Th1-associated cytokines and signals mediated by TLR7 and TLR9 innate receptors thought to be involved in Tbet expression may be at play, particularly in SLE [14,41,42] and most importantly, suggest that the CD11c + B cell compartment can be heterogenous as shown in functional terms in murine SLE [43]. Here, TLR9 is linked to systemic lupus erythematosus.