From genes to function in autoimmune diseases

B-cells in primary Sjögren’s syndrome

Sjögrens syndrome is an autoimmune disease where the main clinical indication is increased lymphocyte infiltration to the salivary and lacrimal glands, leading to a dry mouth and dry eyes. The disease primarily affects middle aged women and the patients can broadly be divided into two groups; those that present with SSA/B autoantibodies and those that do not. While the disease manifestation is mild for most patients about a third develop more severe symptoms and 5% of the patients develop B-cell lymphoma. Given the prominent role of B-cells in Sjögren’s syndrome onset and progression the current project aims to interrogate differences in B-cell subtype composition, clonotype distribution as well as  gene expression differences for different B-cell subtypes between patient subgroups using single-cell NGS approaches.

Group members working in the project

  • Ann-Christine Syvänen
  • Gustav Arvidsson
  • Amanda Raine
  • Paulo Czarnewski (NBIS)

Former group members active in the project

  • Juliana Imgenberg-Kreuz

Main collaborators

  • Ass Prof. Gunnel Nordmark, Ass Prof.  Maija-Leena Eloranta and Dr Johanna Sandling, Research group in Rheumatology, Department of Medical Sciences, and Rheumatology Clinic, Uppsala University Hospital.

Funding

  • Swedish Research Council for Medicine & Health (VR-MH)
  • NBIS long-term bioinformatics support (SciLifeLab)

Recent Publications

  • Imgenberg-Kreuz J, Sandling JK, Almlöf JC, Nordlund J, Signér L, Norheim KB, Omdal R, Rönnblom L, Eloranta M-L, Syvänen A-C, Nordmark G (2016) Genome-wide DNA methylation analysis in multiple tissues in primary Sjögren's syndrome reveals regulatory effects at interferon-induced genes. Ann Rheum Dis, 2016 Feb 8 

Last modified: 2022-04-29
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