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Sjögren´s syndrome (SS) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterised by focal inflammation of the salivary and lacrimal glands, resulting in the common symptoms of dry eyes and dry mouth. Here, mononuclear cells, including B cells, infiltrate the glands, leading to their dysfunction and later destruction. Another distinctive feature is the systemic production of autoantibodies that results from the activation of B cells into antibody secreting plasma cells. Hence, although the etiology of SS remains unclear, B cells do play an important part in the pathogenesis of this disease. In this doctoral work we explore the immunological process, while addressing the concept of B cell specificity and pattern in primary SS (pSS). We consider both the general and the autoantigen-specific B cell pattern in the peripheral blood and the salivary glands of patients with pSS, and also account for the expression pattern of the Ro52 autoantigen. Furthermore, we explore a congenic NOD mouse strain, namely NOD.B10.H2b, in order to characterise the plasma cell compartment in the parotid and submandibular salivary glands and in the bone marrow.

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Dr. Lara A. Aqrawi is an immunologist of Iraqi ethnicity, and has completed her PhD in autoimmunity and Sjögren´s syndrome. She is currently a researcher in the same field at the University of Bergen, Bergen Norway in collaboration with the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Lara is also a post doctor at the University of Oslo, Oslo Norway.

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