Salivary Oxidative Stress: From Basic Research to Clinical Use
1Medical University of Białystok, Białystok, Poland
2Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia
Salivary Oxidative Stress: From Basic Research to Clinical Use
Description
The oral cavity is unique in the body in terms of its exposure to so many pro-oxidant factors. These include pathogenic microorganisms, air pollution, xenobiotics, and ionising radiation, as well as dental materials. Saliva plays a key role in protection against salivary/central oxidative stress. It is a rich source of antioxidants, one of which is the salivary peroxidase system. The salivary peroxidase system contains lactoperoxidase and myeloperoxidase, which not only breaks down hydrogen peroxide but also has an antibacterial effect by inhibiting hexokinase activity. In addition to antioxidant enzymes, saliva also contains a number of non-enzymatic antioxidants, the most important of which are low-molecular compounds such as uric acid, ascorbic acid and reduced glutathione. They protect against the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in a non-selective way.
Over the last twenty years, saliva has been increasingly popular in laboratory diagnostics. Saliva is an excellent diagnostic material because it is easily accessible and can be obtained in a non-invasive way. Importantly, the concentration of many compounds in saliva correlates with their content in blood, which allows non-invasive monitoring of disease progression. An important group of salivary biomarkers are antioxidants and oxidation products of proteins, lipids, and DNA. They are used in the diagnosis of not only oral diseases but also systemic disorders such as obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, psoriasis, and cancer. The use of salivary redox biomarkers is postulated for the diagnosis of other diseases with a proven aetiology of oxidative stress. However, the composition of saliva may vary depending on age, gender, type of salivary gland, time of day, diet, as well as oral diseases.
The aim of this Special Issue is to present recent advances in the contribution of oxidative stress to salivary redox homeostasis and the function of the salivary glands. Novel ideas to discover further salivary redox biomarkers and potential applications will also be described. We welcome both original research and review articles.
Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
- Salivary redox homeostasis in human health and disease
- Crosstalk between salivary and central redox homeostasis
- Salivary redox biomarkers in the diagnosis of oral and systemic diseases
- The effects of antioxidants on salivary and central redox homeostasis
- Animal models to study salivary oxidative stress