Role of B Cells in Rheumatic Autoimmune Disease

There is increasing evidence that B cells can play important roles in the pathogenesis of various autoimmune diseases, either by autoantibody secretion, production of proinflammatory cytokines or autoantigen presentation.An increasing number of B cell directed therapies are in development as a possible treatment strategy of rheumatic autoimmune diseases, such as Rituximab which targets the B cell specific CD20 surface marker.This article provides an overview of the principal understandings of B cell immunology in autoimmunity and selected rheumatic autoimmune diseases.