Abnormal germinal center reactions in systemic lupus erythematosus demonstrated by blockade of CD154-CD40 interactions

Original citation: J. Clin. Invest. 112:1506-1520 (2003). doi:10.1172/JCI200319301.

Citation for this corrigendum: J. Clin. Invest. 117:835 (2007). doi:10.1172/JCI19301C1.

During the preparation of the manuscript, errors were introduced into Figure 3 that affected paragraph 6 in Results. The corrected paragraph and figure appear below.

The authors regret this error.

Expression of differentiation and activation antigens during and after treatment of active-SLE patients with humanized anti-CD154 mAb (BG9588, 5c8). CD38^positive B cells in the circulation of the active-SLE patients disappeared from the peripheral blood during the treatment regimen with humanized anti-CD154 mAb (Figures 2b, 2c, and 3a). Specifically, before the treatment regimen, 63.8% ± 4.1% of the B cells were CD38^positive. At 4–8 weeks after initiation of treatment, the percentage of CD38^positive B cells in the circulation had dropped to 22.7% ± 15.0% (P = 0.024 compared with before treatment). Withdrawal of treatment led to a reappearance of CD38^positive B cells in the circulation (79.3% ± 8.6%) at the earliest time point tested, 2 months after treatment, at a percentage that was not different from the pretreatment percentage (P > 0.05). Of note, this trend was significant for both the pre-switch IgD⁺ (P = 0.018) and the post-switch IgD^– (P = 0.022) B cell subsets.