Carbohydrate activates B cells in skin, connective tissues Researchers led by HMS Associate Professor of Medicine Julia Wang offer a new, unifying theory on the origins of autoimmune diseases. In two related papers in the May 2011 issue of the American Journal of Pathology, the team outlines a process by which a carbohydrate abundant in skin and connective tissue called dermatan sulfate turns traitorous. The resulting disease may be systemic, as in lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, or localized, as in Type 1 diabetes or Graves’ disease. Only a tiny subset of molecules in the body are known to have the...