Fig. 1

Higher RORα expression in the labial salivary glands (LSGs) of patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS). a Pathological analysis of LSG sections. Left, histologic image of normal LSGs from non-SS patients (normal control (NC)). Right, typical histologic image of LSGs from patients with pSS, including acinus atrophy and local lymphocytic sialadenitis. Arrowheads indicate lymphocyte infiltration in connective tissue among glandular lobules and ducts. Scale bars = 200 μm. b Western blot showed that expression of RORα (68 kD) was significantly higher in whole LSGs of patients with pSS (n = 6) compared to NC (n = 4). c Gray-scale analysis. Data were normalized for glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH). Data are mean ± SEM. ***p < 0.001. d Expression of RORα (green) was higher in LSGs of patients with pSS shown by indirect immunofluorescence analysis. Nuclei stained by diamidino-phenyl-indole (DAPI) (blue). Scale bars = 100 μm. e normalized fold difference in RORα expression between pSS (n = 34) and NC (n = 12) analyzed by densitometry. ^*p < 0.05. f Relative expression of RORα mRNA in whole LSGs of patients with pSS (n = 6) compared to NC (n = 4) are normalized for GAPDH mRNA and plotted as fold change over control. Data are mean ± SEM. ***p < 0.001