Salivary Defensins and Their Importance in Oral Health and Disease

Abstract

Saliva contributes significantly to the protective barrier of oral epithelium through its mechanical rinsing action and the unique peptides it contains. Saliva contains several types of antimicrobial peptides, including defensins, which may have an important role in innate host defense. Many types of human defensins have been discovered and characterized in the last decade. This review summarizes the recent literature on salivary defensins and discusses their importance in oral health and disease. Salivary defensins are possibly derived from salivary ductal cells, oral epithelial cells and some blood cells. The antimicrobial activity of defensins may be affected by the components of saliva. Salivary defensin levels can be altered in oral diseases, and therefore may be a useful marker for risk assessment, salivary diagnosis and therapeutic strategies.

Susceptibility to Infectious Diseases Based on Antimicrobial Peptide Production

“…This interesting finding suggests that normal AMP concentrations can control oral bacteria growth, thus preventing caries; the question of whether this phenomenon occurs during adulthood and its use in caries susceptibility screening need to be studied further. The possible therapeutic use of AMPs in oral disease is reviewed elsewhere (1,29).…”

Comprehensive Defensin Assay for Saliva

“…One of the major routes of pathogen exposure in humans occurs through the oral cavity1, 2. In response to potential pathogen infection, there exists a variety of different mediators present in human saliva that are involved in host defense3.…”

Epigenetics of oral infection and inflammatory diseases—DNA methylation changes in infections and inflammation diseases

“…In literature, P. gingivalis has been shown to induce hypermethylation of elastase 2, inhibin beta, GATA binding protein 3, Toll-like receptor 2, and IL-12. These genes are strongly associated with the expression of human beta defensin 2 (hBD-2) [29], which is an epithelial antimicrobial peptide with a broad spectrum of activity against gram-negative and grampositive bacteria, as well as some fungi and viruses [30]. hBD-2 plays an important role in adaptive immunity, as well as innate immunity, in the oral epithelium [31].…”