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Neovascularization is prominent in the chronic inflammatory lesions of Sjögren's syndrome
Author(s) -
Sisto Margherita,
Lisi Sabrina,
Ingravallo Giuseppe,
Lofrumento Dario Domenico,
D'Amore Massimo,
Ribatti Domenico
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international journal of experimental pathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.671
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1365-2613
pISSN - 0959-9673
DOI - 10.1111/iep.12061
Subject(s) - angiogenesis , neovascularization , immunohistochemistry , inflammation , medicine , pathology , infiltration (hvac) , histiocyte , biomarker , immunology , biology , biochemistry , physics , thermodynamics
Summary Angiogenesis is a common finding in chronic inflammatory diseases; however, its role in Sjögren's syndrome (SS) remains to be elucidated. Previous SS studies have demonstrated an increase in VEGF‐A/VEGFR‐2 system expression in minor salivary gland (MSG) biopsies from patients with SS, but differences in the new blood vessel formation between the different grades of disease severity have not been reported. Therefore, experiments were performed to demonstrate angiogenesis during different phases of primary SS (p SS ) and to define the relationship between the microvessel density (MVD), macrophage infiltration and histiocyte distribution in SS MSG inflammatory lesions. In this series of experiments, immunohistochemistry was used to examine angiogenesis in serial sections of p SS MSG. Patients with p SS were classified accordingly with the grade of inflammatory lesions as I = low‐grade (low focus score of 1 or 2), II = intermediate‐grade (focus score of 3–6) and III = extensive inflammation in the MSG (high focus score of 12). Histological examination demonstrated that the MVD increased with the severity of the inflammatory lesions, and in addition, we found an increased infiltration of inflammatory and pro‐angiogenic cells.These findings reveal that angiogenesis is intimately involved in the progression of p SS , may be central to the propagation of the chronic immune response observed in p SS and could represent a novel potential biomarker of p SS disease activity.