The nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse is subject to autoimmune disease-associated lymphocytic attack on the salivary glands with a corresponding loss of exocrine function. Downregulation of stimulus response to the beta-adrenoceptor agonist, isoproterenol, appears to be related to a decline in beta-adrenergic receptor density, changes in the level of intracellular second messenger signaling component adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate, and protein kinase A activity. An autoantibody to the beta 1-adrenergic receptor present in the sera of diabetic NOD mice may be involved in the reduced agonist response by virtue of its ability to retard dihydroalprenolol radioligand binding to receptors in the membranes of salivary glands from control mice and recognition of purified beta 1-adrenergic receptor by immunoblotting techniques.
Histatin is a group of histidine-rich polypeptides specific to parotid and submandibular gland secretions with several different biological functions such as stabilization of mineral-solute interaction in oral fluid, and antibacterial and antifungal actions. The authors generated polyclonal antibody to histatin by using purified histatin 5 as an immunogen and assayed the immunoreactivity by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunoblotting. The antibody was further used to localize histatin in normal and tumors of salivary glans, pleomorphic adenoma, Warthin's tumor, adenoid cystic, acinic cell, mucoepidermoid, papillary cystadenocarcinoma and undifferentiated carcinoma by immunohistochemical methods. The normal major and minor human salivary glands showed an intense immunoreactivity in ductal cells, trace immunoreactivity in serous acini and no immunoreactivity in mucous acinar cells, suggesting histatin in mainly produced by ductal cells and to a lesser extent by serous cells. A consistent immunoreactivity of histatin in ductal segments of normal glands and a variable expression in the tumor cells of all the neoplastic lesions examined may implicate a role of this polypeptide in normal salivary gland function and salivary tumors. In addition, the findings may implicate common precursor cells, however, differing in the state of differentiation in normal and neoplastic conditions.
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