A subset of HIV-positive patients develops salivary gland disease (HIV
-SGD), characterized by salivary gland enlargement and/or decreased sa
livary flow. While clinical symptoms are similar to Sjogren's syndrome
(SS), patients with HIV-SGD lack circulating anti-SS-A/Ro and anti-SS
-B/La. Occasionally, SS patients lacking circulating anti-SS-A/Ro and
anti-SS-B/La have these antibodies in their saliva. Salivas from 11 pa
tients with HIV-SGD, 13 HIV+ patients without HIV-SGD, 14 HIV-negative
men controls, and 11 patients with SS were screened for autoantibodie
s. Five HIV-SGD salivas had antibodies recognizing the cytoplasm of a
salivary cell line. No HIV+ controls showed reactivity. Ten of 11 SS p
atients had salivary autoantibodies, and one HIV-negative control was
positive for them. Salivary anti-SS-A/Ro was present in 8/11 SS patien
ts, and 7 also contained anti-SS-B/La. No HIV-SGD salivary samples had
these specific autoantibodies. These findings suggest that while glan
dular polyclonal expansion occurs in both HIV-SGD and SS, different au
toantibodies are produced.