Germinal centres in a person with SLE and controls (schematic). Red: CD68 in tingible body macrophages; black: TUNEL positive apoptotic cells. 1) Healthy donors with florid germinal centres show giant tingible body macrophages (TBM) containing ingested apoptotic cells and no uningested apoptotic cells outside the TBM. 2) People with follicular lymphoma show small tingible body macrophages (TBM) containing few ingested apoptotic cells however, there are no uningested apoptotic cells outside the TBM. 3) Some with SLE (1) show lack of TBM and many uningested apoptotic cells decorating the surfaces of spindle-shaped cell, presumably follicular dendritic cells (SLE 1). 4) Some people with SLE show TBM containing few ingested apoptotic cells and many uningested apoptotic cells outside the TBM (SLE 2). However, about 50 % of people with SLE show rather normal germinal centre.