Autoimmune disease is a condition arisen from an abnormal immune response to the tissue cells itself, its precise mechanism remains unknown, and the failure to distinguish self from non-self is often termed a breach of tolerance and is the basis for autoimmune illness. The tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) induced protein 8 like-2 (TIPE2) is a newly discovered member of TNF-α induced protein 8 (TNFAIP8) family which is an essential negative controller of both innate and adaptive immunity. It has been documented that marked expressions of TIPE2 are evident in various autoimmune diseases, including autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), myasthenia gravis (MG) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), which appear to be closely related to the severity, progression as well as prognosis of the illness, thereby contribute to the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. Deficient expression of TIPE2 might contribute to the hyper-reactivity of auto-reactive lymphocytes and macrophages, or aggregate inflammatory reaction by prompting high concentration of pro-inflammatory cytokines in peripheral blood, thus, trigger the development and progression of autoimmune diseases. In addition, dysregulation of immune homeostasis could be another latent target involved into the mechanism of autoimmune diseases. The present paper summarized the potential role and its mechanism of TIPE2 in the development of autoimmune diseases. DOI: 10.11855/j.issn.0577-7402.2017.08.17