Possible involvement of Epstein-Barr virus in the pathogenesis of Sjogren's syndrome.
We examined the possible involvement of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in the pathogenesis of Sjogren's syndrome (SS) using B cell lines (BCLs) spontaneously established from the peripheral blood. These BCLs were positive for EBNA and produced a large amount of infecting EBV in culture, a feature unique to SS-BCLs. Polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that EBV with a B95-8-like U2 region was dominant in SS-BCLs. The nucleotide sequences of the U2 region of SS-EBV obtained so far have shown high homology to those of B95-8 EBV. However, there was a substantial amount of deletion and substitution of nucleotides within the U2 region of SS-EBV when compared with B95-8 EBV. This might enable SS-BCLs to escape immune recognition by cytotoxic T cells specific to EBNA-2. In addition, SS-EBV contains the sequence that spans the B95-8-deleted region. Furthermore, transfer of SS-BCLs to SCID mice induced monoclonal lymphoproliferative disorders that resembled those arising in SS. These data further support the motion that reactivation of EBV is deeply involved in polyclonal B cell activation and the development of B cell malignancies in SS.
Miyasaka
N
N
Division of Immunological Diseases, Medical Research Institute, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan.
Saito
I
I
Haruta
J
J
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000382:microbiology; D001483:Base Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008232:Lymphoproliferative Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000382:microbiology; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012859:Sjogren's Syndrome / Q000209:etiology / Q000382:microbiology*