[Detection of B-lymphocyte clonality in samples of salivary gland tissue in patients with primary Sjogren syndrome]. / Detekcija klonalnosti B limfocita u uzorcima tkiva pljuvacnih zlezda bolesnika sa primarnim Sjegrenovim sindromom.

ABSTRACT

Intensive lymphoplasmocytic infiltration with atrophy of glandular tissue structures is the dominant patohistological feature found in exocrine glands of patients with Sjögren syndrome (SS). The infiltrates consist of T and B lymphocyte clusters that make the structures resembling germinal centers, and numerous plasmocytes that are secreting imunoglobulines locally, including autoantibodies. By applying the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in our study we have shown the existence of dominant B cell clone in salivary glands samples of 4 out of 6 patients with SS, in the absence of clinical, routine laboratory, and patohistological signs of the lymphoma. B lymphocyte clones were detected upon the amplification of gene segment that encoded variable heavy chain immunoglobulin CDR3 region. Finding of single, dominant B lymphocyte clone could be of predictive significance, because these patients are predisposed to non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) for which there is an assumption that it originates out of salivary glands from one of the clusters of proliferating B lymphocytes.