IL-4-dependent effector phase in autoimmune exocrinopathy as defined by the NOD.IL-4-gene knockout mouse model of Sjögren's syndrome.

NOD mice manifest many features of autoimmune exocrinopathy (Sjögren's syndrome), a disease generally characterized by a chronic, progressive immunological attack against the exocrine tissues of the salivary and lacrimal glands. Previous studies using the NOD congenic partner strain, NOD.Igmu(null), defined an important role for B lymphocytes in the development of xerostomia, implicating autoantibodies reactive with the acetylcholine muscarinic receptor (M3R) as the possible effector mechanism. In the present study, we have examined the impact of the cytokine, interleukin (IL)-4, on autoimmune exocrinopathy by using the IL-4 gene knockout (KO) NOD mouse strain, NOD.IL-4-/-. Despite manifesting the physiological aberrations and marked leukocytic infiltration of the salivary glands characteristic of autoimmune xerostomia in NOD mice, the NOD.IL-4-/- mice do not develop xerostomia. However, NOD.IL-4-/- mice that received adoptively transferred T lymphocytes derived from NOD.Igmu-/- mice progress to xerostomia, thereby reversing the defect. While progression or lack of progression to xerostomia correlated with the ability of the NOD.IL-4-/- mice to express detectable anti-M3R autoantibodies, the precise mechanism of how IL-4 influences the development of autoimmune xerostomia remains speculative.

[Recognition of multiple information of human auricular points by linear model].

The three variables of the electric characteristic of human auricular points can be regarded as observed targets that reflect the physiologic or pathologic changes. Medical principle design follows the theory of the channels and collaterals and the viscera-state doctrine of traditional Chinese medicine and that of the pattern recognition. The linear integration model can be established by drawing the characteristic variables of the correlation groups of the auricular points and applying the multi-variable normalization. With this model, the recognition of the three variations of the auricular points can be of use for differential diagnosis. In this paper, the test to identify the cases of Upper-Digestive tract achieves good result. This research, based on the integration of modern science with traditional Chinese medicine, provides a method for building the specialist system of the auricular point diagnosis, and probably has some prospect in clinical application.