Fig. 3.

The number of peripheral blood dendritic cells (PBDCs) in Sjögren's syndrome (SS) is restored during the clinical course. We plotted the number of PBDCs, myeloid DCs or plasmacytoid DCs in 29 primary SS and 19 secondary SS patients except those with systemic lupus erythematosus – merged secondary SS against the x-axis that shows the time after the onset of Sicca syndrome. A direct correlation was observed between the number of total PBDCs (a, correlation 0·73, P < 0·01) and myeloid DCs (b, correlation 0·83, P < 0·01) and the time from onset of Sicca syndrome in primary SS. A direct correlation was observed between the number of PBDCs (d, total PBDCs; correlation 0·53, P = 0·0189; and e, myeloid DCs; correlation 0·60, P = 0·0053) and the time from the onset of Sicca syndrome in secondary SS, the same as primary SS. On the other hand, the number of plasmacytoid DCs was not correlated significantly with the length of follow-up period (c,f). PBDC number and serum immunoglobulin (Ig)G levels of six (of the 29) patients with primary SS were monitored. Although four of the six patients (g) and all six patients (h) showed an increase in the number of total PBDCs after an average of 43 months from initial examination, their serum IgG levels were not altered markedly (j). Plasmacytoid DC numbers did not show distinct alteration in all six patients (i).