PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Moutsopoulos, H M
AU  - Steinberg, A D
AU  - Fauci, A S
AU  - Lane, H C
AU  - Papadopoulos, N M
TI  - High incidence of free monoclonal lambda light chains in the sera of patients with Sjogren's syndrome.
DP  - 1983 Jun 01
TA  - The Journal of Immunology
PG  - 2663--2665
VI  - 130
IP  - 6
4099  - http://www.jimmunol.org/content/130/6/2663.short
4100  - http://www.jimmunol.org/content/130/6/2663.full
SO  - J. Immunol.1983 Jun 01; 130
AB  - Sjogren's syndrome presents a wide spectrum of disease manifestations ranging from benign to malignant lymphoproliferation. Sera from 21 patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome, 63 patients with other autoimmune rheumatic diseases, and 140 normal controls were studied by using high-resolution gel electrophoresis combined with immunofixation and specific absorption studies. Two-thirds of the sera from Sjogren's syndrome patients contained free monoclonal lambda light chains. In addition, one patient with Sjogren's syndrome and pseudolymphoma had a circulating monoclonal IgM-lambda immunoglobulin. In contrast, only 16% of the patients with other autoimmune diseases and 5% of normals had monoclonal bands; none of the other patients studied exhibited monoclonal-free lambda light chains in their serum. Our findings suggest that the monoclonal process in Sjogren's syndrome starts early in the disease process in a subset of B cells.