TY - JOUR T1 - Possible involvement of IL-12 expression by Epstein-Barr virus in Sjögren syndrome. JF - Journal of Clinical Pathology JO - J Clin Pathol SP - 833 LP - 837 DO - 10.1136/jcp.52.11.833 VL - 52 IS - 11 AU - M Horiuchi AU - S Yamano AU - H Inoue AU - J Ishii AU - Y Nagata AU - H Adachi AU - M Ono AU - J N Renard AU - F Mizuno AU - Y Hayashi AU - I Saito Y1 - 1999/11/01 UR - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/52/11/833.abstract N2 - AIM: 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. ER -