Physiological and Pharmacological Regulation of Human Salivary Electrolyte Concentrations; With a Discussion of Electrolyte Concentrations of Some Other Exocrine Secretions 1

Abstract

The electrolyte content of paraffin-stimulated, whole, mixed saliva obtained from patients with congestive heart failure is characterized by lower sodium, lower chloride, and higher potassium concentrations than saliva of normal subjects (1). Since these data suggested possible increased adrenal cortical activity in patients with heart failure, desoxycorticosterone acetate (DCA) was administered to nineteen normal subjects. It also seemed of interest to study additional pharmacological and physiological mechanisms that may play a role in the regulation of salivary electrolyte concentrations. Thus, the aims of this communication are to present: 1) Data on normal salivary concentrations of sodium, chloride, and potassium; 2) data relating to physiological mechanisms regulating the concentrations of salivary electrolytes; and 3) the effects on salivary electrolytes of ard methods of statistical analysis were employed (3); the "t" test was used to determine the statistical significance of mean differences between groups, and the method of "paired differences" was employed in evaluating the effects of pharmacologic agents on the electrolyte concentrations of saliva.Ten mgm. DCA in oil were injected intramuscularly, daily, for 5 to 15 days into normal subjects who received a regular diet and 10 gm. supplemental salt by mouth per day. Duplicate collections of saliva were collected on consecutive days both before and during the administration of DCA in order to test the reproducibility of the values for salivary electrolyte concentrations. The concentration of potassium was not measured in one of these subjects.Twenty-nine pairs of observations were made on the effect of 6 mgm. of subcutaneously-administered pilocarpine on the salivary electrolyte concentrations in subjects without cardiac disease. Thirty minutes after the injection of pilocarpine the subject began to chew paraffin again, and 30 ml. of saliva were collected (usually in about 10 minutes).Two ml. of Mercuhydrin® were injected intramuscularly into 10 patients with congestive heart failure and on a low salt diet. Collections of saliva were made at the time of administration, and at 1Ih, 3, and 24 hours, respectively, after the injection of the mercurial diuretic.Fifteen experiments on nine normal subjects on a regular salt diet were performed in which saliva was collected in two successive 10-minute periods in order to compare the salivary electrolyte concentrations during varying rates of flow. RESULTS Normal concentrations of salivary electrolytesFor the 73 control subjects on a regular salt diet, including the 16 values obtained from our earlier studies (1), the normal salivary concentrations of sodium, chloride, and potassium are 26.4 + 11.8, 29.0 + 8.8, and 19.7 ± 3.9 mEq. per L., respectively. 246

Role of Carbonic Anhydrase in the Biarbonate Excretion From Salivary Glands and Mechanism of Ionic Excretion

“…While the previous authors considered only a reabsorptive process of limited capacity played by the striated part as a possible mechanism (8,9,19), the present experiments demonstrated the presence of another process which produces the hypotonic precursor before arriving at the limited reabsorption and of which the capacity may be indicated by a depression of regression coefficient of ion excretion rate. A possible suggestion for it given by histological structures is that a role may be played by the intercalary part of which the development seems to run parallel with the lowering of regression coefficients for total cations or anions.…”

“…6 and 7. White et al (9) suggested that this process is charged on the striated part of the duct, because they believed that excreta of those glands having the striated part in their excretory duct are all hypotonic.…”

The effect of deoxycorticosterone on the undirectional transfers of sodium and potassium into and out of the dog intestine

“…Sweat gland, salivary gland and kidney From necessarily indirect evidence, sodium is considered to be secreted by the proximal portion of the sweat gland, parotid gland and submaxillary gland and then reabsorbed distally (White et al 1955;Schwartz & Thaysen, 1956). If deoxycorticosterone has an effect on the sweat and salivary glands similar to that on the intestine, where it increases the rate of sodium transfer from lumen to blood, then a movement of sodium from lumen to blood exists in the sweat and salivary glands and this would add further indirect evidence that sodium absorption occurs in these glands.…”

“…Such Thiry fistulas were prepared in dogs. Sodium retention was induced with deoxycorticosterone acetate, since the abnormal conservation of sodium by the kidney, colon, salivary gland and sweat gland of the oedematous individual may be simulated in normal men by administration of deoxycorticosterone (Conn, 1949;Berger, Quinn & Homer, 1951;White, Entmacher, Rubin & Leiter, 1955). With the use of radio-isotopes the unidirectional fluxes of sodium and of potassium were measured across the mucosa of various segments of the dog intestine before and after the administration of deoxycorticosterone.…”

The Secretion of Lithium in Human Mixed Saliva: Effects of Ingested Lithium on Electrolyte Distribution in Saliva and Serum

“…Burgen (38) studied the excretion of li thium in the saliva of laboratory animals seeking the sophistication of analyzing the submaxillary and parotid secretions. Physiological studies in the past, however, fail to reveal any essential difference between human mixed saliva and the parotid or submaxillary com ponents with respect to sodium and potassium concentrations (39,40). Furthermore, the behavior of sodium and potassium concentra tions with respect to the rate of salivation is as readily observable in human mixed saliva as in the individual salivary components (41).…”