[The expression of interferon-alpha in peripheral blood of patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the interferon-alpha level in peripheral blood of patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS), and explore preliminarily the correlation between pSS and interferon-alpha.


METHODS
ELISA and real-time PCR were used to evaluate the interferon-alpha level in peripheral blood in 37 patients with pSS and 24 patients with non-pSS. Statistical analysis was performed by Student's t test or Fisher's exact test using SAS6.12 software package.


RESULTS
The results demonstrated that 43.24% (16/37) patients with pSS had detectable IFN-alpha concentration in plasma (>or=12.5 pg/mL), the other 21 patients (56.76%) with pSS had undetectable IFN-alpha concentration(<12.5 pg/mL). All 24 controls had undetectable IFN-alpha expression.There was significant difference between the two groups(P=7.02 x 10(-5)). Furthermore, the mRNA expression levels of IFN-alpha gene in peripheral blood cells were over-expressed in patients with pSS(P=0.0124).


CONCLUSIONS
The study reveals that interferon-alpha level in peripheral blood with pSS patients is overexpressed.
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Ninth People's Hospital, College of Stomatology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Shanghai 200011, China. zhenglingyan73@163.com
Ling-Yan
LY
Zheng
Zhi-Yuan
ZY
Zhang
Chuang-Qi
CQ
Yu
Chi
C
Yang
Xiao-Qing
XQ
Chen
Xing
X
Zhuang
Min-Jun
MJ
Tang
Da-Ming
DM
Wu
Min-Wen
MW
Zhu
D016022:Case-Control Studies; D006801:Humans; D016898:Interferon-alpha; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D012859:Sjogren's Syndrome
D016898:Interferon-alpha; D012333:RNA, Messenger