Sialochemistry: A Diagnostic Tool?

Abstract

Saliva has proven to be a discriminating element in forensic arenas, an effective indicator of acute diseases of salivary glands, and a promising probe for drug monitoring. With the advent of sensitive immunochemical assays, the compositional profile of human salivary secretions has been expanded considerably. Thus, the establishment of a range of "normal values" for a variety of "intrinsic" and "extrinsic" salivary components represented the initial step to use saliva as a diagnostic tool of oral health status. Unfortunately, numerous cross-sectional studies have shown a wide individual variation in the salivary composition of healthy populations, thus precluding its use as a diagnostic chair-side test for the screening of the most common chronic oral diseases (e.g., caries and periodontal disease). A possible explanation may arise from the wide functional versatility of salivary molecules. For instance, it has been recognized recently that in addition to its digestive properties, salivary amylase may modulate bacterial colonization, whereas histatins are not only antifungal but also bactericidal. Thus, low levels of already known antimicrobial salivary molecules (e.g., secretory IgA, lactoferrin, and lysozyme) could be compensated with higher concentrations of other molecules with antimicrobial activity, such as amylase and histatins. Consequently, for caries and periodontal diseases, longitudinal sialochemical studies may yield more insight than cross-sectional studies.

Thickened saliva after effective management of drooling with botulinum toxin A

“…This normal variability in the concentrations of salivary molecules has precluded the use of saliva to diagnose oral dysfunction. 22 This may also be the reason for our failure to demonstrate a correlation between increased mucin concentrations and swallowing problems. On the other hand, it seems reasonable to assume that drooling children with CP in whom coordination of tongue mobility is severely disturbed and who lack voluntary control of lips, jaw, and tongue will have insufficient strength to process the thickened saliva and will experience difficulty in clearing the oral cavity.…”

“…Thus, the wide distribution of salivary mucin concentrations in our study population may be accepted as normal. 22 Furthermore, the rheological measurements in this study were accurate, made using large flexible macromolecules such as mucins, and their concentrations were calculated correctly. 17 The accuracy of the salivaryflow rates based on the gauze weight method, however, may be reduced by salivary density changes after administration of BoNT-A.…”

Does Variability in Salivary Protein Concentrations Influence Oral Microbial Ecology and Oral Health?

“…Parotid saliva contains a large amount of amylase, lesser amounts of lysozyme, and no mucins. By contrast, submandibular/sublingual saliva is rich in mucins, cystatins, and lysozyme, but has less amylase (Mandel and Wotman, 1976;Shomers et al, 1982;Aguirre et al, 1992Aguirre et al, , 1993Tabak, 1995). It is not clear whether subject differences in the concentration of particular proteins will be consistent in salivas from different glands.…”

“…Some of the proteins described here are minor constituents of saliva. However, amylase, PRP, and mucins comprise a major proportion of total salivary protein (Aguirre et al, 1993). A majority of the protein molecules in saliva thus may be capable of interacting with oral microbes.…”

Saliva- A Diagnostic Tool

“…A similar use has been envisioned for salivary secretions. 1 The diagnostic use of saliva has attracted the attention of numerous investigators because of the noninvasive nature and relative simplicity of collection.…”