Both newly developed techniques showed that the presence of EBV DNA was significantly increased in patients with primary SS in comparison with control subjects. In all the positive SS patients who underwent in situ hybridization, epithelial cells of the labial salivary gland were the target of EBV infection. Our results suggest that this virus may play a role in the pathogenesis of SS. We cannot yet determine whether EBV is directly responsible for the destruction of the gland, or if its presence is a secondary event following gland injury.
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