Las Mucinas Salivales y sus implicaciones en la reología de la saliva humana y los sustitutos salivales

La literatura revisada para el presente artículo requirió el análisis de aspectos reológicos aplicables a la saliva humana y los sustitutos salivales. La saliva cuenta entre sus componentes glicoproteínas tipo mucina, las características bioquímicas de dichas glicoproteínas le confieren a la saliva sus propiedades reológicas, tales como viscosidad, lubricación y elasticidad. Las moléculas de mucina en solución presentan asociación y gelificación; la dinámica de estos procesos se ha estudiado por diversas técnicas e instrumentos. La hidratación de las mucinas es necesaria para que estas se gelifiquen, y le confieran a la saliva (o sus soluciones), viscosidad, lubricación y elasticidad, los mecanismos para que esto ocurra se apoyan en un Equilibrio de Donnan, sin embargo, en el fluido salival humano, la concentración fisiológica de mucina es tal que no permite la observación de gelificación. No obstante, a concentraciones mayores sí podría ser observada. Se han realizado estudios para el desarrollo de sustitutos salivales con compuestos de naturaleza glucídica y con mucinas extraídas de diversos tejidos animales, individualmente y en mezcla, con el objeto de aliviar la sintomatología de patologías que disminuyen el flujo salival, estos estudios han demostrado que la mucina extraída de glándulas submandibulares de bovino es la que mejor se adapta a los parámetros reológicamente deseables para un sustituto salival.

In this review it is considered the rheological aspects of human saliva and salivary substitutes. Saliva has mucin like glycoproteins, which confer saliva its rheological properties, such as viscosity, lubrication and elasticity. Mucin molecules have gel forming properties; the dynamic of this process have been widely discussed. Mucin hydration is necessary for gelification and lubrication, mucin hydration confers saliva, viscosity, elasticity and lubrication properties, the hydration mechanism is based on a Donnan Equilibrium. The physiological concentration of mucins in human saliva is not sufficiently high to show gelification, however, this property can be displayed at higher concentrations. Sugar derivatives and animal mucins have been studied, either isolated or at mixtures for the development of salivary substitutes, these studies showed that mucin extracted from bovine submaxillary glands is best suited to accomplish the desirable parameters for a salivary substitute.

Characterization and properties of a lipoprotein-complexing proteoglycan from human aorta.

The preparation of a proteoglycan (PG) from human aortic intima-media is described. The PG was obtained from intima-media homogenates by differential centrifugation, exclusion chromatography and preparative agarose electrophoresis. Crude or purified preparations of the proteoglycan are capable of forming specific insoluble complexes with LDL, purified or in serum. This product has been labelled lipoprotein-complexing proteoglycan (LCP-3). On agarose and cellulose acetate electrophoresis LCP-3 appears as a single band. However, its glycosaminoglycan (GAG) moiety shows a composition and chromatographic behaviour compatible with hybrid or mixed chains of chondroitin-6-so4, dermatan sulfate and heparin and/or heparan sulfate. The specificity of LCP-3 for LDL disappears when it is treated with testicular hyaluronidase or proteolytic enzymes. Ionic strength, pH, Ca++ and Mg++ modulate the amount of LDL insolubilized. The amino acid composition of the protein from LCP-3 is that of a basic protein(s), perhaps bound covalently through xylose--serine residues to the GAG's. The estimated molecular weight of LCP-3 is 1 to 5 x 10(6) daltons. The presence of LCP-3 to intima-media and its specificity for interacting with LDL at conditions near to physiological ones are suggestive of the role that this type of structure may play in the association of the atherogenic lipoproteins with components of the arterial intima-media.

The affinity of low density lipoproteins for an arterial macromolecular complex. A study in ischemic heart disease and controls.

Levels of serum cholesterol, triglycerides, lipoprotein pattern and the insolubilization of serum low density lipoproteins (LDL, betalipoprotein) by a factor present in arterial intima--media extracts was investigated in 55 patients with acute coronary heart disease and 50 healthy controls. In blood samples obtained 24 h after the episode, the serum betalipoproteins from male normotensive patients showed a high tendency to precipitate when incubated with the intima-media extracts, nearly twice the value measured in the control group. This affinity returned almost to control level after 21 days in the hospital. Hypertensive patients showed a serum cholesterol higher than the controls but almost no difference in LDL-arterial factor interaction. The composition of isolated LDL was studied in 7 patients and 8 controls and it was found that the total cholesterol/protein plus phospholipid ratio has a positive exponential correlation with the lipoprotein-arterial factor affinity. The results of LDL analyses suggest that a change in their composition, frequent in normotensive patients, can lead to an increased affinity of this lipoprotein for arterial intimamedia components. It is proposed that this process could be an additional risk factor contributing to the deposition of LDL in the arterial wall.