Immunoreactive Histatin 5 in Salivary Gland Tumors.

Abstract

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.

Human Salivary Histatins: Promising Anti-Fungal Therapeutic Agents

“…Later, researchers mainly followed the protocols of Baum et al (1977a), with some modifications (MacKay et al, 1984a;Oppenheim et al, 1988;Raj et al, 1990;Tsai et al, 1996). Because the "histatin" nomenclature was adopted by Oppenheim et al (1988) ed against chemically synthesized histatin-5 in rabbits (Shrestha et al, 1994 Lal et al, 1992c;see Table 2). Pollock's group determined that HRP-2 is the non-phosphorylated form of HRP-l or histatin-l (Lal et al, 1992c), and this agreed with the prediction of .…”

Antimicrobial Peptides in Saliva and Salivary Glands: Their Roles in the Oral Defense System

“…The immuno-histochemical expression of histatin 5 has also been investigated in detail, revealing that the duct cells of all salivary glands are stained intensely and that duct-like tumor cells and modified myoepithelial tumor cells or plasmacytoid cells in pleomorphic adenoma show positive reactivity to histatin. It is suggested that the precursor cells of salivary gland tumors secrete histatin protein (49).…”