In this article, we report a method for cell recognition of system lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients that uses photostable luminescent nanoparticles as biological labels. The luminescent silica nanoparticles are prepared with a water-in-oil microemulsion (W/O) technique. The silica network is produced by the controlled hydrolysis of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) in water nanodroplets with the initiation of ammonia (NH3.H2O). A luminescent compound, tris(2,2'-bipyridyl)dichlororuthenium(II)hexahydrate [Ru(II)(bpy)3]2+, is doped inside as a luminescent signaling element, and the most appropriate dye concentration for the preparation of the nanoparticles with a size of 28 +/- 4 nm has been determined. The luminescent silica nanoparticles are covalently immobilized with goat anti-human immunoglobulin G (IgG), which can recognize SmIgG+ B lymphocytes. We have used antibody-labeled nanoparticles to recognize target SmIgG+ B lymphocytes isolated from the circulating blood of SLE patients. It has been observed that a bioassay based on fluorescent nanoparticles can identify target cells selectively and efficiently. And fluorescent nanoparticle labels also exhibit high photostability. The experiment results have shown that this cell recognition method was an effective one as further proof of the diagnosis of SLE.