B cells can act alone in autoimmune disease, Yale researchers report

B cells, the source of damaging autoantibodies, have long been thought to depend upon T cells for their activation and were not considered important in the initiation of autoimmune diseases like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. In the Aug. 7 online issue of the journal of Immunity, Yale University researchers turn this paradigm on its head by showing that in systemic autoimmune diseases B cells can be activated the absence of T cells. The study suggests new ways to intervene in the immune system's chronic attacks on the body's own tissue. The findings were surprising because many scientists believed that B cells remain quiet in autoimmune diseases unless they are stimulated first by T cells, said Mark Shlomchik, MD, professor of laboratory medicine and immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine and senior author of the study.... [read full story]