HLA-DR ALLELES IN PATIENTS WITH SJÖGREN'S SYNDROME OVER-REPRESENTING Vβ2 AND Vβ13 GENES IN THE LABIAL SALIVARY GLANDS

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Abstract
To identify genetic factors that play a role in the pathogenesis of patients with SS over-representing Vβ2 and Vβ13 genes in the lips, HLA-DR and -DQ alleles of 10 primary SS patients with predominant expression of Vβ2 and Vβ13 genes in the lips were analysed, using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequence specific oligonucleotide probes. The CDR3 amino acid sequences of cDNA clones encoding Vβ2 and Vβ3 genes were also determined by PCR. The results showed that the DRB4*0101 allele was significantly increased (80%) and that the frequency of DRB3 allele was decreased (0%) when compared to findings in healthy subjects (35.6 and 26%, respectively). Sequencing analyses demonstrated that 75% of Vβ2 cDNA clones and 87% of Vβ13 cDNA clones had a glutamine residue at position 106, in the CDR13 region. Moreover, the conserved sequences (Y*TLRNEQ) in the CDR3 of Vβ13-positive T cell were detected in two different clones (27%) from the two individual SS patients. These findings suggest that the decreased DRB3 and increased DRB4*0101 alleles may be associated with the antigens recognized by Vβ2- and Vβ13-positive T cells.

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