Salivary anti-spectrin autoantibodies in Sjögren's syndrome.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was done to compare the anti-spectrin autoantibody levels in the parotid saliva of Sjögren's syndrome patients and in the parotid saliva of healthy control subjects.


METHODS
The salivary anti-spectrin autoantibody levels of 20 Sjögren's patients and of 20 healthy controls were compared by means of the slot blot immunoassay and the alkaline phosphatase method.


RESULTS
Various anti-spectrin autoantibody levels were detected in the saliva of both patients and controls. The color intensity of the blots was scored on a scale of 1 to 3. The scores were deemed to indicate the anti-spectrin autoantibody levels in saliva (1 = low, 2 = moderate, and 3 = high). The Mann-Whitney U test did not reveal a significant difference in the anti-spectrin autoantibody levels of patients and the anti-spectrin autoantibody levels of controls (P > or = .31). These results do not support a pathologic role for anti-spectrin autoantibody in Sjögren's syndrome.


CONCLUSIONS
The overall result of this study substantiates that anti-spectrin autoantibodies occur naturally in saliva. Their role in immune surveillance or pathology is not clear at present.
Moody
M
M
Baylor College of Dentistry, Texas A & M University, Dallas 75246, USA.
Zipp
M
M
Al-Hashimi
I
I
D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000032:analysis; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012463:Saliva / Q000276:immunology*; D012471:Salivary Proteins and Peptides / Q000276:immunology*; D012859:Sjogren's Syndrome / Q000276:immunology*; D013049:Spectrin / Q000276:immunology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
D001323:Autoantibodies; D012471:Salivary Proteins and Peptides; D013049:Spectrin