2). We used χ2 tests or, if appropriate, Fisher’s exact test to compare differences between groups with and without SS [27].

P-values < 0·01 were considered significant, with a confidence interval (CI) of 99%. Statistical analyses were performed using SigmaStat program version 1·02 (Systat Software Inc., Richmond, CA, USA). In this paper we propose that the detection of IgH gene rearrangements in MSG of SS patients is a predictor of malignant clonal expansion. To test our hypothesis, using PCR we analysed 102 DNA samples from whole MSG biopsies of SS patients and control subjects using FR2/LJH-VLJH, FR3/LJH and FR1c/JH1–6 primers (Table 2). The results obtained in the clonality assay by PCR using different primers are shown in Table 3, where the clonal IgH gene rearrangement selleck chemicals llc was found in 28 of 48 (58%) patients with pSS using FR3/LJH primers; one band of amplification was observed selleck products in the gel. The remaining 20 cases presented a polyclonal rearrangement and were observed as a smear in the gel (Fig. 1a). When FR2/LJH-VLJH primers were used, the clonal rearrangement was found in 79% of

the pSS patients (Fig. 1b). Similar results were obtained in the sSS cases (Table 3 and Fig. 1c). Therefore, this analysis shows that patients with SS contained clonal B cell infiltrates in their MSG. When a polyclonal background was observed as a smear in the gel, the co-existence of polyclonal and monoclonal B cell populations was hypothesized to explain the results (Fig. 1). The FR2/LJH-VLJH primers amplified successfully a higher proportion of cases with SS than FR3/LJH primers, as shown in Table 3. To assess the false negative results, all the cases were analysed with FR1c/JH1–6 primers (Table 3 and Fig. 1d). We should point out that after use of the three sets of primers, the clonality detection rate reached 86·7% in SS patients (pSS and

sSS), as indicated in Table 3. Nineteen per cent of the control subjects exhibited oligo-monoclonal bands with similar PCR amplification and histopathological analysis of the gland exhibited different degrees of CS. A strong polyclonal cell background was observed in the eight PCR-positive Quinapyramine cases. The level of amplification was notably lower than in all the cases with SS (Fig. 1). The number of positive cases for the presence of clonal expansion in MSG from SS patients was very high compared with the control cases without SS (86·7 versus 19%, P < 0·01; χ2 test). Translocation t(14;18) was observed in 8·3% of the cases with pSS (Table 3). In addition, we demonstrated that our IgH PCR method was highly sensitive to detected clonal cells. This PCR method was able to detect 102 clonal cells in 105 PBMC, using the three consensus regions (Fig. 2).