Age and gender characteristics of the biochemical composition of saliva: Correlations with the composition of blood plasma

Abstract

Background: Recently, the attention of researchers to the study of the properties of human saliva, as a material with unique properties and diagnostic capabilities, has increased. Research objective: to study the connection of the biochemical composition of saliva and blood plasma in the norm, depending on gender and age. Methods: 107 volunteers took part in the study, including 46 female (37.2 ± 3.9 years old) and 61 male (36.1 ± 2.8 years old). In all samples of saliva and blood plasma, 16 biochemical parameters were determined, including mineral and protein composition, enzyme activity. Non-parametric statistical methods were used to process the data. Results: It has been shown that it is difficult to establish an unambiguous relation between biochemical parameters of saliva and blood plasma. The calculation of the Spearman correlation coefficients showed that only 7 of the 16 parameters demonstrate the presence of a weak correlation between the content in saliva and plasma. Conclusion: In general, the determination of the composition of saliva may have an independent diagnostic value; in this case, drawing a parallel with the composition of serum and blood plasma is not advisable. Nevertheless, the use of saliva in clinical laboratory diagnostics is associated with the need to establish criteria for the norm and pathology for each biochemical parameter.

Salivary pH and oral health of Brazilian para‐athletes: Saliva and oral health of para‐athletes

“…This fact could be responsible for the better CO 2 balance in the bloodstream of men, and a little more acid in the bloodstream of women reflect a decrease in salivary pH 1 . In this sense, although we have found at least one study 18 that corroborates our findings, more studies are needed to clarify this point.…”

Proteomic profile of the acquired enamel pellicle of professional wine tasters with erosive tooth wear

“…However, age is not likely to affect the protein composition of the acquired pellicle since the majority of the proteins of this integument originate from saliva. Studies have reported that the total protein concentration of saliva does not change with age [23,24]. This means that the age difference between the groups is unlikely to be a confounding factor in the present study.…”

Untargeted saliva metabolomics reveals COVID-19 severity

“…As shown in Figure 3, amino acids constituted the class of metabolites seeing the most change between high and low severity, similar to literature observations of changes in either amino acids or ratios of amino acids, albeit specific amino acids commonly cited in the literature (for example kynurenine, arginine or ratios thereof) 1,29,30 did not feature in the saliva analysis presented here. It should be noted, however, that the correlation of metabolites between saliva and blood has previously been found to be weak or in some cases non-existent, 31,32 and the same may be true for the saliva and blood of individuals testing positive for COVID-19. Direct analysis of paired blood samples would be required to draw any definitive conclusion on differential dysregulation of metabolites between serum and saliva.…”