[Immunopathology of the salivary glands of the lips in Sjögren's syndrome].

The cellular composition of the salivary gland infiltrates in primary Sjogren's syndrome and the presence of lymphokines were evaluated using the Avidin-Biotin-Peroxidase technique in 10 biopsies from Sjogren's syndrome patients. The predominant cell was the T-helper/inducer lymphocyte. T-helper/T-suppressor ratio ranged from 1/1 to 10/1. Only few M were observed while NK cells were rare. More than 50% (50-100%) of the infiltrating cells were HLA-DR positive while epithelial cells were positive from 40-90% in all but 2 cases in which the positivity was 10%. The infiltrating cells were also positive for Leu-10 antigen (40-95%) in contrast to the epithelial cells. Both infiltrating and epithelial cells were reacting with anti IL-2 MoAb in high percentages (50-100%), while none of the infiltrating cells expressed IL-2 receptor. Finally, 40-100% of the infiltrating cells were IFN-gamma positive. The above data indicate that a salivary gland lesion in Sjogren's syndrome is the result of an immune process in which T-lymphocytes predominate producing lymphokines while the epithelial cells by expressing class II MHC molecules, play an important role in the general picture.