Abstract
Objective:
Sjögren’s Syndrome (SS) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune exocrinopathy, and although, the role of metabolism in the autoimmune responses has been discussed in diseases such as lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and scleroderma. There is a lack of information regarding the metabolic implications of SS. Considering that the disease affects primarily salivary glands; the aim of this study is to evaluate the metabolic changes in the salivary glands’ microenvironment using a targeted metabolomics approach.
Methods:
The saliva from 10 patients diagnosed with SS by the American-European consensus and 10 healthy volunteers was analyzed in an Ultra-high Performance Liquid Chromatograph Coupled Mass Spectrometry (UPLCMS).
Results:
The results showed an increased concentration in SS of metabolites involved in oxidative stress such as lactate, alanine and malate, and amino acids involved in the growth and proliferation of T-cells, such as arginine, leucine valine and isoleucine.
Conclusions:
These results revealed that is possible to differentiate the metabolic profile of SS and healthy individuals using a small amount of saliva, which in its turn may reflect the cellular changes observed in the microenvironments of damaged salivary glands from these patients.
Keywords:
Sjögren’s Syndrome; Saliva; Metabolomics
HIGHLIGHTS
The role of metabolism in Sjogren’s Syndrome (SS) is still under discussion.
Saliva can reflect the metabolic state of the microenvironments of salivary glands affected by SS.
An increase in metabolites associated with oxidative stress can be observed.
An increase in metabolites involved in the growth and proliferation of T-cells was also observed.
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