Effects of green tea polyphenol on Sjogren's syndrome

To start, an autoimmune disease is a condition in which your immune system mistakenly attacks your body. Sjogren's syndrome, autoimmune disorder characterized by lymphocytic infiltration and acinar destruction of salivary and lacrimal glands leading to dry mouth and dry eyes, with a poorly understood etiology. The presented theory is that an environmental factor may trigger an immune reaction, and even genetic factors appear to contribute in the etiology. 90% of patients of (SS) are women with a mean age of 50 years, this suggested that there might be a gender like susceptibility. In about half of the cases the syndrome occurs in association with another autoimmune disease, on this basis the syndrome is divided into: 1. Primary Sjogren's : dry eyes ( xerophthalmia or keratoconjunctivitis ) and dry mouth ( xerostomia ) are the main features. 2. Secondary Sjogren syndrome: the traid of xerostomia, xerophthalmia, and an autoimmune connective tissue disease (usually rheumatoid arthritis). In the US, Sjogren's syndrome affects about 1% of the population . (1) In China, a one regional study with 26,000 subjects, suggested that the prevalence of primary SS was only 0.03% . (2) For xerostomia a study showed that in a group of 1003 Japanese individuals with an average age of 66, 9.1% experienced dry mouth during eating , while in the US, one study found out that in group of 2481 individuals of mean age 65-84 years old, 27% reported with either dry eyes or dry mouth.(3) The herbal extract and Chinese traditional medicine have been used to treat SS and xerostomia with a degree of success. These naturally materials may provide an alternative therapy for SS disorders which may be the cause of this geographical distribution of the disease .