Caracterización cinética de la respuesta de secreción salival producida por ácido cítrico: diferencias con pilocarpina / Kinetic assessment of salivary secretory response to citric acid, as compared with pilocarpine

Background: Induction of salivation is becoming increasingly popular in the assessment of salivary gland status. Various mechanical or pharmacological procedures are empirically used to produce salivation. Oral stimulation by citric acid (AC) is by far the most used sialagogue procedure. Aim: To characterize the salivary secretory response to AC solutions applied to the dorsolateral tongue surfaces. Subjects and methods: Young healthy women from the upper levels of a medical career (n=19) participated as volunteers. Salivary volume and UV-absorbing organic material in saliva from single subjects were measured after various protocols of topical stimulation by AC. Results: After a single stimulation by 1-8 percent AC the salivary flow rate peaked before 30 seconds and recovered the basal level earlier than 2 minutes. Repetitive stimulations at 30-sec intervals kept the flow rate at a maximum. After suspending these stimulations, basal flow rate was recovered before 2 minutes. Repetitive AC-stimulations at 8-min intervals produced a series of identical and independent secretory responses. The concentration of organic material in saliva remained unaltered after the various modes of stimulation. Thus, the profile of organic material secretion was always a direct expression of changes in salivary flow rate. In contrast to AC, the oral administration of the cholinergic agonist pilocarpine (PIL) produced a two-wave salivary response that as a whole lasted for about 30 minutes. In this case the volume and the amount of organic material were at least 10-fold the ones secreted in response to AC. Conclusions: AC provoked a rapid and short-lived salivary response that differs markedly from the one produced by other secretagogues, like pilocarpine

Dispositivos para colección de saliva de las glándulas salivales mayores: resultados en sujetos normales / Assessment of devices for saliva collection from major salivary glands in groups of individuals

Background: Collection of saliva produced by the major salivary glands may be accomplished either by cannulation of the glandular ducts or by the application of specific collecting devices to the emergence area of the glandular ducts. Those procedures are complex, slow, invasive and require skilled personnel. Aim: To report the design and application of a device to collect parotid saliva (snail collector) and another device to collect saliva from the submandibular/sublingual complex. Material and methods: The saliva collection devices were tested in 40 healthy volunteers (20 male) aged 18 to 22 years old. Saliva was collected using conventional conditions, during 5 to 15 min. Results: An average of 1 to 1.5 ml of saliva was collected in the 10-15 min period from both parotid and submandibular/sublingual glands. Flow rates from parotid glands were 80 µl/min and 180 µl/min from submandibular/sublingual glands. Parotid saliva had a protein and organic material concentration twice as high than saliva from submandibular/sublingual glands. The presence of human a-amylase duplet (Mr 55 kD and 58 kD) predominated in parotid saliva, whereas saliva from submandibular/sublingual glands had other molecular markers such as the lysozyme duplet (Mr 18.5 kD and 17 kD). Conclusions: The tested devices were easily applicable, comfortable and allowed the collection of both parotid saliva and submandibular/sublingual saliva from various subjects at once, under the supervision of a single professional