Salivary cytokines in healthy adolescent girls: Intercorrelations, stability, and associations with serum cytokines, age, and pubertal stage

Abstract

Theoretically, the measurement of cytokines in saliva may have utility for studies of brain, behavior, and immunity in youth. Cytokines in saliva and serum were analyzed across three annual assessments in healthy adolescent girls (N = 114, 11-17 years at enrollment). Samples were assayed for GM-CSF, IFNγ, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12p70, TNFα, adiponectin, and cotinine. Results revealed: (1) cytokine levels, except IFNγ and IL-10, were detectable in saliva, and salivary levels, except IL-8 and IL-1β, were lower than serum levels; (2) salivary cytokine levels were lower in older girls and positively associated with adiponectin; (3) compared to serum levels, the correlations between salivary cytokines were higher, but salivary cytokines were less stable across years; and (4) except for IL-1β, there were no significant serum-saliva associations. Variation in basal salivary cytokine levels in healthy adolescent girls reflect compartmentalized activity of the oral mucosal immune system, rather than systemic cytokine activity.

Adiponectin: Serum-saliva associations and relations with oral and systemic markers of inflammation

“…We found strong positive associations between salivary adiponectin and indices of oral inflammatory activity and oral health (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, TNFα and MMP-8). While consistent with findings from a previous study of healthy adolescent girls (Riis et al, 2013), these findings are contrary to findings from in vitro studies of adiponectin's effect on oral epithelial cells, primary gingival fibroblasts, and periodontal ligament cells (Iwayama et al, 2012;Kraus et al, 2012). Together, the findings demonstrate the importance of assessing adiponectin's relations with inflammation and health using various approaches and populations; the function and proprieties of adiponectin may vary based on characteristics of the hormone, its receptors and the health of the individual (Almabouada et al, 2013;Li & Wu, 2012).…”

“…Furthermore, based on previous studies (Riis et al, 2013), we hypothesize that salivary adiponectin is positively associated with measures of oral inflammatory activity and oral health, and, therefore, we also examine the serum-saliva correlation for adiponectin when controlling for measures of oral inflammatory activity and oral health. We hypothesize that the serum-saliva correlation will become stronger when we control for indicators of oral inflammation and oral health.…”

“…Furthermore, variation in local oral mucosal immune responses is largely confined to that particular compartment and relatively independent of the more general systemic level of immune activation (e.g., Kindt, Osborne, & Goldsby, 2006). Correspondingly, in contrast to the strong serum-saliva associations for many endocrine markers, the serum-saliva correlations for immune markers has been shown to be small to modest (e.g., Nishanian, Aziz, Chung, Detels, & Fahey, 1998;Riis et al, 2013). Thus, characteristics of oral health and inflammation may significantly compromise the possibility of using salivary measures of immune-sensitive analytes, such as adiponectin, as an alternative to blood measures.…”

Associations among Inflammatory Biomarkers in the Circulating, Plasmatic, Salivary and Intraluminal Anatomical Compartments in Apparently Healthy Preschool Children from the Western Highlands of Guatemala

“…With IL-6 as the only biomarker measured, Grisius et al [34] and Minetto et al [35] found no significant inter-compartmental correlation in healthy North American and Italian adults, respectively; this was also the experience of Fernandez-Botrán et al [36], investigating emotionally-abused women, again with IL-6 as their only cytokine biomarker of interest. Among 8 cytokines, including the same 5 assayed in the present study, measured concurrently in plasma and saliva in healthy female adolescents, Riis et al [37] found only IL-1B to reach a statistically-significant correlation between compartments. In 2013, Byrne et al [38] evaluated 11 cytokines, including 4 of the 5 cytokines measured here, across the anatomical compartments in healthy Australian adolescents; they found significant associations only for IL-2, IL-12 and INF-γ, but for none of the cytokines measured in the present study.…”

Re: Emotions, immunity and sport: Winner and loser athlete’s profile of fighting sport

“…It is true that salivary IL-1b only showed an indirect association with plasma levels (Riis et al, 2014). However, our new results show saliva an independent tool to investigate markers of the performance outcome.…”