Salivary Alpha-Amylase in Experimentally-Induced Muscle Pain

Abstract

Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) is a marker of psychological stress and might also be a potential marker for pain-associated stress due its non-invasive, cost-effective, and stress-free collection. The current study aimed to investigate whether the levels of sAA are influenced by experimentally induced muscle pain. In this study, 26 healthy, pain-free and age-matched participants (23.8 ± 2.6 years) were included, 13 women and 13 men. Prior to the experiment, questionnaires assessing health and anxiety were completed. Muscle pain was then induced through intramuscular injection of 0.4 mL hypertonic saline (56.5 mg/mL) into the masseter muscle and unstimulated whole saliva samples were collected at baseline before injection, 2 min, and 15 min after injection. A commercially available colorimetric assay was used to analyze the sAA. Perceived pain and stress were assessed using a 0–100 Numeric Rating Scale for each sample. There were no significant differences in sAA levels prior and after injection of hypertonic saline (p > 0.05) although sAA levels showed a slight decrease during experimentally-induced muscle pain. However, a strong correlation was observed between self-reported pain and perceived level of stress during experimentally-induced muscle pain (r2 = 0.744; p < 0.0001). Furthermore, there was a moderate correlation between the levels of sAA at baseline and during experimental pain (r2 = 0.687; p < 0.0001). In conclusion, this study could not show any association between the levels of sAA and perceived pain and or/stress. However, since a significant strong correlation could be observed between perceived stress and pain intensity, this study indicates that experimentally-induced muscle pain could be used as a stress model.

Nociception related biomolecules in the adult human saliva: A scoping review with additional quantitative focus on cortisol

“… 29 , 30 , 41 , 54 Twenty-eight researchers used standardized methods with citation. 13 – 16 , 19 – 22 , 24 , 25 , 27 – 32 , 34 – 39 , 42 – 46 , 54 Seven used either a novel technique or a known technique with no citation. 18 , 23 , 26 , 33 , 40 , 41 , 55 In 41 studies, baseline and post-pain biomolecule concentrations were measured from the same participant group in a before-after design.…”

“… 49 , 55 The remaining articles did not report on psychiatric conditions. 13 – 15 , 17 – 19 , 31 , 35 , 36 , 38 – 40 , 42 , 44 – 47 , 51 , 52 People with chronic pain were excluded in 19 studies 1 , 3 , 17 , 19 – 22 , 24 – 30 , 35 , 38 , 43 , 47 , 49 , 50 whereas in 20 studies it was not clear if any participants had chronic pain. 14 – 16 , 18 , 31 – 34 , 37 , 39 , 40 , 42 , 44 – 46 , 48 , 51 – 54 Four studies enrolled participants with chronic conditions including back pain, 55 chronic fatigue, 36 fibromyalgia, 23 and temporomandibular disorder 41 as part of the study design.…”

“…Seven studies included a restriction of 0.5–3 h on tooth brushing and eating to avoid blood contamination from mucosal micro-injuries. 19 , 20 , 28 – 30 , 32 , 44 …”

Stride Length Impacts on Sagittal Knee Biomechanics in Flat Ground Baseball Pitching

“…The sequential order of the post-hoc secondary analysis suggested that longer strides have a detrimental physiological cost, manifested by throwing arm fatigue [23] concomitant with significantly higher perceived exertion, heart rate, and metabolic responses coincident with muscle inflammation and pain [19,33] yet may be beneficial mechanically in mitigating throwing arm stress. Despite ball velocity performance remaining unchanged [17], significantly different propulsive and bracing ground reaction force profiles in the magnitude and timing of peaks [18], the linear and angular momentum transfer [20,21], temporal profiles [22], and grip strength [23] have subsequently been reported, augmenting the initial findings [19].…”

Pain intensity and salivary α‐amylase activity in patients following mandibular third molar surgery

“…In addition, salivary alpha‐amylase (SAA) provides a potential site for the binding of bacterial adhesions that cause early dental plaque formation (Ramasubbu et al, 1996 ). In clinical relevance, SAA is a potentially cost‐effective biomarker of psychological stress that can be used to objectively assess the severity of pain for a patient (Christidis et al, 2020 ; Laurikainen et al, 1988 ; Nater & Rohleder, 2009 ; Nederfors & Dahlof, 1996 ; Nederfors et al, 1994 ; Speirs et al, 1974 ; van Stegeren et al, 2006 ). Regarding oral and periodontal diseases, SAA has been referenced for assessing pain perception and severity in many types of patients (Canigur Bavbek et al, 2021 ; Castillo‐Felipe et al, 2022 ; Cotoia et al, 2018 ; Vahedi et al, 2018 ; Vaswani et al, 2020 ; Wittwer et al, 2016 ; Yennurajalingam et al, 2018 ).…”