Loss of B cell tolerance, autoantibody production, and immune complex deposition are hallmarks of systemic lupus erythematosus. Al Souz et al. find that kidney-infiltrating CD8+ T cells differentiate from stem-like precursors in renal lymph nodes and cause tissue injury in lupus nephritis, demonstrating that pathological organ-specific responses mediated by stem-like CD8+ T cells are embedded within systemic autoimmunity.
