Salivary anti-spectrin autoantibodies in Sjögren's syndrome

Objective. The purpose of this study was done to compare the anti-spectrin autoantibody levels in the parotid saliva of Sjögren's syndrome patients and in the parotid saliva of healthy control subjects. Methods. The salivary anti-spectrin autoantibody levels of 20 Sjögren's patients and of 20 healthy controls were compared by means of the slot blot immunoassay and the alkaline phosphatase method. Results. Various anti-spectrin autoantibody levels were detected in the saliva of both patients and controls. The color intensity of the blots was scored on a scale of 1 to 3. The scores were deemed to indicate the anti-spectrin autoantibody levels in saliva (1 = low, 2 = moderate, and 3 = high). The Mann-Whitney U test did not reveal a significant difference in the anti-spectrin autoantibody levels of patients and the anti-spectrin autoantibody levels of controls (P ≥ .31). These results do not support a pathologic role for anti-spectrin autoantibody in Sjögren's syndrome. Conclusions. The overall result of this study substantiates that anti-spectrin autoantibodies occur naturally in saliva. Their role in immune surveillance or pathology is not clear at present.