9 research outputs found
Vascular density in melanoma xenografts correlates with vascular permeability factor expression but not with metastatic potential
Immunoprofile of focal lymphocytic infiltration in minor salivary glands of healthy individuals
Monotypic plasma cells in labial salivary glands of patients with Sjogren's syndrome: prognosticator for systemic lymphoproliferative disease.
Immunohistochemical expression of neural tissue markers (neuron-specific enolase, glial fibrillary acidic protein, S100 protein) in ameloblastic fibrodentinoma: A comparative study with ameloblastic fibroma
Ro/SS-A- and La/SS-B-reactive B lymphocytes in peripheral blood of patients with Sjögren's syndrome
The aim of this study was to investigate the production of anti-Ro/SS-A and anti-La/SS-B antibodies in peripheral blood (PB) of patients with Sjögren's syndrome (SS). The ELISPOT method was performed to quantify the frequency of PB lymphocytes spontaneously secreting anti-Ro/SS-A and/or anti-La/SS-B antibodies. The total number of IgG-, IgA- and IgM-producing cells was also quantified. The recombinant Ro 52-kD, Ro 60-kD and La 48-kD proteins were used as target antigens. Three of 18 SS patients had PB lymphocytes secreting IgG antibodies against the recombinant Ro 52-kD protein. The same three patients had high serum titres of anti-Ro 52-kD antibodies. In addition, these patients were classified as having severe disease, and all three had focus scores of ≥ 8 in biopsies of the labial salivary glands (LSG). The correlation between the number of PB cells producing IgG antibodies against the recombinant Ro 52-kD protein and the focus score was significant (P < 0.01). The results indicate that only SS patients with severe disease and high degree of local inflammation in LSG have B cells producing anti-Ro/SS-A antibodies in PB. Thus, most of the spontaneous autoantibody production must take place in other body compartments, e.g. in exocrineglands and probably also in the lymphoid organs and/or other mucosal sites