Possible involvement of IL-12 expression by Epstein-Barr virus in Sjögren syndrome.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the correlation between interleukin 12 (IL-12) expression and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in Sjögren syndrome.


METHODS
Indirect immunohistochemical technique, enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and immunoblot analysis were used to investigate IL-12 expression by EBV activation, using 13 surgical specimens and four B cell lines.


RESULTS
Marked expression of IL-12 was found in the epithelial cells and the infiltrating B cells of salivary gland tissues from patients with Sjögren syndrome (six of 10 cases), but not in those from normal individuals (none of three cases). A striking topographic correlation between IL-12 and EBV was found. In addition, levels of IL-12 production by B cell lines were clearly enhanced by EBV activation in vitro.


CONCLUSIONS
IL-12 expression closely reflects the intracellular event of EBV activation in Sjögren syndrome, and may contribute to the T helper cell type 1 (Th1) cytokine overexpression seen in this disease.
Horiuchi
M
M
Department of Microbiology, Tokyo Medical University, Japan.
Yamano
S
S
Inoue
H
H
Ishii
J
J
Nagata
Y
Y
Adachi
H
H
Ono
M
M
Renard
J N
JN
Mizuno
F
F
Hayashi
Y
Y
Saito
I
I
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology; D002461:Cell Line, Transformed; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D019084:Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D018664:Interleukin-12 / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012859:Sjogren's Syndrome / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology; D014775:Virus Activation
D018664:Interleukin-12