Salivary anti-spectrin autoantibodies in Sjogren's syndrome

Objective. The purpose of this study was done to compare the anti-spectrin autoantibody levels in the parotid saliva of Sjogren's syndrome patients an d in the parotid saliva of healthy control subjects. Methods. The salivary anti-spectrin autoantibody levels of 20 Sjogren's pat ients and of 20 healthy controls were compared by means of the slot blot im munoassay and the alkaline phosphatase method. Results. Various anti-spectrin autoantibody levels were detected in the sal iva of both patients and controls. The color intensity of the blots was sco red on a scale of 1 to 3. The scores were deemed to indicate the anti-spect rin autoantibody levels in saliva (1 = low, 2 = moderate, and 3 = high). Th e Mann-Whitney U test did not reveal a significant difference in the anti-s pectrin autoantibody levels of patients and the anti-spectrin autoantibody levels of controls (P greater than or equal to .31). These results do not s upport a pathologic role for anti-spectrin autoantibody in Sjogren's syndro me. Conclusions. The overall result of this study substantiates that anti-spect rin autoantibodies occur naturally in saliva. Their role in immune surveill ance or pathology is not clear at present.