Antigen-driven autoantibody production in lungs of interstitial lung disease with autoimmune disease

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) sometimes becomes a life-threatening complication of systemic autoimmune diseases; however, little is known about the immune response in lung lesions. We aimed to investigate humoural immunity in ILD associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), sjögren's syndrome (SjS), and mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD), using bronchoalveolar fluid (BALF) and serum samples from 15 patients with autoimmune disease...