Papers

Peer-reviewed International journal
Mar 15, 1999

Abundance of NKT cells in the salivary glands but absence thereof in the liver and thymus of aly/aly mice with Sjögren syndrome.

Cellular immunology
  • J Narita
  • ,
  • T Kawamura
  • ,
  • C Miyaji
  • ,
  • H Watanabe
  • ,
  • S Honda
  • ,
  • T Koya
  • ,
  • M Arakawa
  • ,
  • T Abo

Volume
192
Number
2
First page
149
Last page
58
Language
English
Publishing type
Research paper (scientific journal)

It is known that ALY/Nsc Jcl-aly/aly (aly/aly) mice that congenitally lack lymph nodes fall victim to Sjögren syndrome as a function of age. We investigated how TCRint cells of extrathymic origin and TCRhigh cells of thymic origin are distributed in various organs of these mice. Although the distribution of T-cell subsets was not different between control aly/+ and aly/aly mice in youth in any of the tested organs, the proportion of TCRint cells in the liver and spleen of aly/aly mice increased with aging. Usually, TCRint cells in the liver comprise a half-and-half mixture of a NK1. 1(+) subset (i.e., NKT cells) and a NK1.1(-) subset. In constrast, almost all expanding TCRint cells in various immune organs of aly/aly mice were found to be NK1.1(-). A large proportion of lymphocytes, including NK cells and TCRint cells, were also present in the salivary glands of aly/aly mice. Interestingly, these TCRint cells in the salivary glands contained an NK1.1(+) subset (i.e., NKT cells) that used an invariant chain of Valpha14Jalpha281 for TCRalphabeta (>50%). Moreover, gammadeltaT cells that used Vgamma 1, 2, 4/Vdelta 1, 4, 6 mRNAs, different from those of gammadeltaT cells in the liver and intestine, were abundant. Possibly reflecting the in situ generation of these T cells in the salivary glands, the expression of RAG-2 mRNA was evident by the RT-RCR method. These results suggest that (i) inflammatory lymphocytes that evoke Sjögren syndrome in aly/aly mice are NK cells or TCRint cells (both NK1.1(+) and NK1.1(-) subsets) and (ii) TCRint cells in the salivary glands might be generated in situ.

Link information
PubMed
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10087183
ID information
  • ISSN : 0008-8749
  • Pubmed ID : 10087183

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