Marginal Zone B (MZB) Cells: Comparison of the Initial Identification of Immune Activity Leading to Dacryoadenitis and Sialadenitis in Experimental Sjögren’s Syndrome

Although multiple mouse strains have been advanced as models for Sjögren’s syndrome (SS), which is a human systemic autoimmune disease characterized primarily as the loss of lacrimal and salivary gland functions, the C57BL/6.NOD-Aec1Aec2 recombinant inbred (RI) mouse derived from the NOD/ShiLtJ line is considered one of the more appropriate models exhibiting virtually all the characteristics of the human disease. This mouse model, as well as other mouse models of SS, have shown that B lymphocytes are essential for the onset and development of observed clinical manifestations. Recently, studies carried out in the C57BL/6.IL14α transgenic mouse have provided clear evidence that the marginal zone B (MZB) cell population is directly involved in the early pathological events initiating the development of the clinical SS disease, as well as late-stage lymphomagenesis resulting in B-cell lymphomas. Since MZB cells are difficult to study in vivo and in vitro, we carried out a series of ex vivo investigations that utilize temporal global RNA transcriptomic analyses to profile differentially expressed genes exhibiting temporal upregulation during the initial onset and subsequent development of pathophysiological events within the lacrimal and salivary gland tissues per se or associated with the leukocyte cell migrations into these glands. The initial transcriptomic analyses revealed that while the upregulated gene expression profiles obtained from lacrimal and salivary glands overlap, multiple genetic differences exist between the defined activated pathways. In the current study, we present a concept suggesting that the initial pathological events differ between the two glands, yet the subsequent upregulated TLR4/TLR3 signal transduction pathway that activates the type-1 interferon signature appears to be identical in the two glands and indicates an autoimmune response against dsRNA, possibly a virus. Here, we attempt to put these findings into perspective and determine how they can impact the design of future therapeutic protocols.