Absence of salivary CCL28 in primary Sjögren’s syndrome

Abstract

CCL28 is a mucosa-associated epithelial-cell-produced chemokine involved in oral defense. We assessed the level of CCL28 in saliva of primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) patients in comparison with healthy controls and correlated it with IgA salivary levels. We included 30 non-smoker pSS patients and 30 non-smoker healthy controls paired by age (±5 years). Saliva samples were collected during the morning and kept frozen at -86 °C until the analysis. Fifty microliters of saliva was diluted 3:1 with water and analyzed for CCL28 salivary levels by ELISA method. The samples were tested in triplicate. IgA salivary levels were tested by ELISA method. We used descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test and Kendall's tau correlation coefficients. pSS patients were mostly females (93.3 %), mean age 54.5 ± 13.3 years and median disease duration of 7.6 years (0.5-33). Patients with pSS had lower levels of salivary CCL28 when compared with controls [0 (0-1,272 pg/ml) vs. 94.4 (0-5,810) pg/ml, p < 0.0001]. pSS patients also had lower median levels of salivary IgA [72.55 μg/ml (0.40-297.4)] than controls [131.9 μg/ml (6.8-281.8)], although the latter results did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.51). Among the SS group, there was no correlation between CCL28 and IgA salivary levels nor between salivary IgA and disease duration, salivary flow, serum immunoglobulins or dental loss. CCL28 was absent in saliva of pSS patients; however, this finding did not correlate with salivary IgA levels.

Decreased circulating CXCR3 + CCR9+T helper cells are associated with elevated levels of their ligands CXCL10 and CCL25 in the salivary gland of patients with Sjögren’s syndrome to facilitate their concerted migration

“…A low percentage co‐expresses CCR10, and CCL27 is reduced in the labial salivary gland. The decrease of CCL27 mRNA expression in pSS is in accordance with the decrease of CCL28– the other ligand for CCR10– in saliva of pSS patients …”

“…The decrease of CCL27 mRNA expression in pSS is in accordance with the decrease of CCL28-the other ligand for CCR10-in saliva of pSS patients. 29 In this study, we focused on CD4 + Th cells, however, the importance of CD8 + T cells in the immunopathology of pSS has been indicated previously in pSS patients and Sjögren-like disease models. [30][31][32][33] In this respect, the interplay between CCR9 + Th cells and (CCR9+) CD8 T cells has been demonstrated previously to play a key role in immunopathology.…”

B cells responses and cytokine production are regulated by their immune microenvironment

“…Other mucosal sites including small intestine and colon [110] also express CCL28. Deregulated levels of CCL28 have been correlated to various pathologies including salivary gland tumors and [110] Hodgkin’s disease (HD) [111], and Sjögren’s syndrome [112]…”

CCL28 chemokine: An anchoring point bridging innate and adaptive immunity

“…The highest expression levels of CCL28 can be found in the salivary glands, and deregulated levels of CCL28 have correlations with salivary gland tumors, Hodgkin's disease, and Sjögren's syndrome [40] , [41] , [41] . CCL28 can be found in nearly all mucosal tissues, including in the mucosal tissues of the mammary gland.…”