1998 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A study of molecular pathology in experimental Sjogren's syndrome in mice
| Project/Area Number |
08407057
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
Morphological basic dentistry
|
|---|
| Research Institution | The University of Tokushima |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
HAYASHI Yoshio The University of Tokushima, School of Dentistry, Professor, 歯学部, 教授 (00127854)
|
|---|
| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
YANAGAI Kumiko The University of Tokushima, School of Dentistry, Research Associate, 歯学部, 助手 (90294701)
HANEJI Norio The University of Tokushima, School of Dentistry, Research Associate, 歯学部, 助手 (30274228)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
1996 – 1998
|
| Keywords | Sjogren syndrome / Animal model / NFS / sld mouse / Autoantigen / Autoreactive T cells / T cell epitope / B cell epitope / alpha-fodrin |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
Primary Sjogren syndrome (SS) in humans is an autoimmune disease characterized by diffuse lymphoid cell infiltrates in the salivary and lacrimal glands, resulting in symptoms of dry mouth and dry eye clue to insufficient secretion. The spectrum of presentation of the disease is broad, ranging from the organ-localized dysfunction of exocrine gland to systemic complications such as liver, kidney and lung involvement. Moreover, a significant proportion of the SS patients may develop malignant lymphoproloferative disorders such as B cell lymphoma and macroglobulinemia. Although it has been assumed that a combination of immunologic, genetic, and environmental factors may play a key role on the development of autoimmune lesion in the salivary and lacrimal gland, little is known about the disease pathogenesis of primary SS in humans. A great interest is to investigate different immunological aspects of human autoimmune diseases including SS.The hypofunction of the salivary glands is due to lymphocytic infiltration, in which it is generally assumed that autoreactive T cells recognize unknown self-antigen and play a central role in the pathogenesis of SS.Primary SS is also characterized by systemic production of autoantibodies to ribonucleoprotein (RNP) particles SS-A/Ro and SS-B/ La, but the specificity for the immunogenicity of SS-A and SS-B remains unclear. Although it has been unclear whether or not there are critical organ-specific autoantigen(s) relevant to human primary SS, we have recently identified the 120KD alpha-fodrin as an important salivary gland autoantigen on the development of SS in both animal model and SS patients.
|
