Sjögren's syndrome: studying the disease in mice

Abstract

Sjögren's syndrome (SS), a systemic autoimmune disease, is characterized by inflammation of exocrine tissues accompanied by a significant loss of their secretory function. Clinical symptoms develop late and there are no diagnostic tests enabling early diagnosis of SS. Thus, particularly to study these covert stages, researchers turn to studying animal models where mice provide great freedom for genetic manipulation and testing the effect of experimental intervention. The present review summarizes current literature pertaining to both spontaneous and extrinsic-factor induced SS-like diseases in mouse models, discussing advantages and disadvantages related to the use of murine models in SS research.

Figure 1

Salivary gland histopathology. Focal mononuclear cell infiltration of the salivary gland characteristic for Sjögren's syndrome. (a) Hematoxylin and eosin stained section of a submandibular gland, a sublingual gland and parts of the parotid salivary gland with a lymph node. (b) Magnification of a focal mononuclear cell infiltrate. The specimen was obtained from a 21-week-old nonobese diabetic mouse. Figure adapted from [51].

Figure 2

Assessment of salivary gland secretion capacity. Saliva collection and measurement of the salivary flow rate in an anesthetized nonobese diabetic mouse subsequent to the intraperitoneal injection of pilocarpine. Figure reproduced with kind permission from Springer Science & Business Media [13], photograph by Nicolas Delaleu.