Fig. 6.

The concentration and the secretion volume per unit time of cytokines and chemokines in the saliva from Sjögren's syndrome (SS) patients. The concentrations of interferon (IFN)-γ, tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, ILl-10, IL-12, inducible protein (IP)-10, macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1α, regulated upon activation normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES), thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC) and macrophage-derived chemokine (MDC) were estimated quantitatively, as described in the Patients and methods section. Concentrations in the saliva from SS patients were compared with those in the controls (a). Furthermore, the concentrations in the saliva from SS patients with strong lymphocytic infiltration were compared with those with weak lymphocytic infiltration (b). The bar shows the mean value ± standard deviation. Statistical significance of the differences between groups was determined by Student's t-test (*P < 0·05; **P < 0·01).