Project details

or


The development of dry eye disease in Sjogren’s Disease patients

Keywords:
autoimmune disease dry eye Sjogren's syndrome

Researchers:
S.A. Pringle

Type of project:
Stage Wetenschap / Researchproject

Nature of the research:
Research from a clinical cohort. Medical knowledge needed for interpretation of results.

Fields of study:
immunology reumatology

Background / introduction
Sjögren’s Disease (SjD) in an autoimmune disease, characterised amongst other things by development of dry mouth, originating from salivary gland dysfunction and dry eyes, originating from a combination of lacrimal gland and corneal surface dysfunction. Studies into the salivary gland, in relation to the loss of function over time, degree and nature of lymphocytic infiltration etc are relatively abundant. Those tackling lacrimal gland dysfunction and ocular surface damage, both complicit in dry eye disease, are scarce, hampering our comprehension of SjD development.
Research question / problem definition
How does dry eye disease develop in time in SjD patients, compared to that of the salivary gland?
Workplan
Within our department, we have established the ‘RESULT’ cohort of patients, a follow-up cohort of Sjogren’s patients over a 10 year period. At years 1, 2, 5 and 10, saliva and tear production is measured in SjD patients, in addition to blood and serum collection for laboratory analysis of disease-associated factors, determination of autoantibody titre and calculation of disease activity scores. We have currently included 400 patients, 200 of which have reached the 2 year time point, and a small number already the 5 year time point.
For this JSM project, we propose to use data in the RESULT cohort relating to lacrimal gland dysfunction (volume of tear fluid produced using Schirmer’s strips and ocular damage measured using the ocular staining score), salivary gland dysfunction (unstimulated saliva production, gland specific saliva), and other SjD clinical parameters, to answer the following questions:
1. How does lacrimal gland dysfunction and ocular surface disease develop over time in SjD patients?
2. How does this compare to lacrimal gland dysfunction and ocular surface disease development in incomplete SjD patients – i.e. those not fulfilling all diagnosis criteria?
3. How does lacrimal gland and ocular surface disease develop in comparison to that of the salivary gland in SjD?
References
Pringle & Verstappen et al, 2021. Epithelial–immune cell interplay in primary Sjögren syndrome salivary gland pathogenesis. Nat Reviews Rheumatology.
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