PLoS ONE (Jan 2012)

Skewed production of IL-6 and TGFβ by cultured salivary gland epithelial cells from patients with Sjögren's syndrome.

  • Takafumi Kawanami,
  • Toshioki Sawaki,
  • Tomoyuki Sakai,
  • Miyuki Miki,
  • Haruka Iwao,
  • Akio Nakajima,
  • Takuji Nakamura,
  • Tomomi Sato,
  • Yoshimasa Fujita,
  • Masao Tanaka,
  • Yasufumi Masaki,
  • Toshihiro Fukushima,
  • Yuko Hirose,
  • Makoto Taniguchi,
  • Naotoshi Sugimoto,
  • Toshiro Okazaki,
  • Hisanori Umehara

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0045689
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 10
p. e45689

Abstract

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OBJECTIVE: To determine the cytokine production profile of cultured salivary gland epithelial (SGE) cells obtained from patients with Sjögren's syndrome (SS). METHODS: SGE cells obtained from 9 SS patients and 6 normal controls were cultured in the presence of exogenous IFNγ. Cell proliferation and apoptosis in response to IFNγ were determined by WST1 assay and by FACS analysis. The concentrations of IL-6 and TGFβ secreted into culture supernatants were analyzed by ELISA. RESULTS: IFNγ did not significantly affect the proliferation or apoptosis of SGE cells. However, IL-6 concentrations were higher, and TGFβ concentrations were lower, in culture supernatants of SGE cells from SS patients than from normal controls. CONCLUSION: Cytokine production by SGE cells from SS patients showed a skewed balance compared with normal controls, with increased IL-6 and decreased TGFβ secretion. This imbalance may be critical in the regulation of Treg/Th17 cells and may foster a pathogenic milieu that may be causative and predictive in SS.