The level of peripheral regulatory T cells is linked to changes in gut commensal microflora in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem autoimmune disorder mainly mediated by lymphocytes and autoantibodies, which have a pervasive negative impact on the majority of organs.1 2 It deserves more attention to further explore the pathogenesis because of the unclear complex pathogenesis and the limited clinical efficacy of SLE treatment. Recently, a cross-sectional discovery cohort in the USA conducted by Azzouz et al , published in Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, suggested that specific gut commensal strains, especially Ruminococcus gnavus , may contribute to the disease activity and autoantibody production in SLE patients,3 which put forward a novel concept for the immune pathogenesis of SLE. Their study was well performed and analysed the abundance of intestinal flora and sera profiled for antibacterial and autoantibody responses between SLE patients with the different disease activity index scores and matched healthy controls. However, the faecal microbiota is lacking a precise link with lymphocytes in peripheral blood of the patients, which are the important participants …