Purpose: To investigate the interferon-alpha level in peripheral blood of patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS), and explore preliminarily the correlation between pSS and interferon-alpha.
Methods: ELISA and real-time PCR were used to evaluate the interferon-alpha level in peripheral blood in 37 patients with pSS and 24 patients with non-pSS. Statistical analysis was performed by Student's t test or Fisher's exact test using SAS6.12 software package.
Results: The results demonstrated that 43.24% (16/37) patients with pSS had detectable IFN-alpha concentration in plasma (>or=12.5 pg/mL), the other 21 patients (56.76%) with pSS had undetectable IFN-alpha concentration(<12.5 pg/mL). All 24 controls had undetectable IFN-alpha expression.There was significant difference between the two groups(P=7.02 x 10(-5)). Furthermore, the mRNA expression levels of IFN-alpha gene in peripheral blood cells were over-expressed in patients with pSS(P=0.0124).
Conclusions: The study reveals that interferon-alpha level in peripheral blood with pSS patients is overexpressed.