| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000)
Fiscal Year 2010: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Mikulicz’s disease (MD) shows a high-frequency GCs formation in the salivary glands. Recent studies reported that IL-21 mainly produced by T follicular (Tfh) cells is provided help to germinal centers (GCs) formation and involved in a class switching of IgG4. In this study, we thus examined the expression of IL-21 in MD and Sjogren’s syndrome (SS) patients. As the results, IL-21 and CXCR5 were detected in/around GCs from both SS and MD patients. Interestingly, IL-21 was also detected in infiltrating lymphocytes outside GCs from only MD patients. The expression of Th2-related molecules was similar to that of IL-21, while IL-17 was rarely seen in MD. Furthermore, the expression of IL-21 in the LSGs was correlated with the IgG4/IgG ratio in MD. These results suggest that overexpression of IL-21 by Th2 cells might play a key role in GCs formation and IgG4 production in MD
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