OBJECTIVE To compare the immunologic state of 44 pediatric patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) with a control group consisting of 16 healthy individuals. METHODS CF patients aged 3 to 12 years with moderate to good clinical score were selected for the study. Erythrocytic glutathione, production of reactive oxygen species, cytokines (TNF-a, IFN-g, IL-8, IL-6, IL-10) in peripheral blood mononucl...

diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic diseases caused by a combination of insulin resistance and impaired insulin secretion by pancreatic β cell. in 2007, 246 million people (roughly 6%) were affected by diabetes worldwide and it is estimated that this will increase to 380 million in 2025. diabetes is associated with several long-term complications such as cardiovascular disease, nephropath...

Because early childhood is an important period for the colonization of bacteria in the primary dentition, it is possible that antimicrobial factors in saliva may modify these early events. In this study we have followed longitudinally 33 children from predentate to dentate phase and analyzed whole saliva for such salivary factors as lysozyme, lactoferrin, salivary peroxidase, myeloperoxidase, t...

The effect of humoral immunity on the composition of the oral microbiota is less intensively investigated than hygiene and diet, in part due to a lack of simple and robust systems for investigating interactions between salivary immunoglobulins and oral bacteria. Here we report the application of an ex situ method to investigate the specificity of salivary immunoglobulins for salivary bacteria. ...

this evidence-based article reviews risk indicators and management of unknown-origin xerostomia. xerostomia and hyposalivation refer to different aspects of dry mouth. xerostomia is a subjective sensation of dry mouth, whilst hyposalivation is defined as an objective assessment of reduced salivary flow rate. about 30% of the elderly (65 years and older) experience xerostomia and hyposalivation....

Studies performed in numerous laboratories over several decades have demonstrated the feasibility of immunizing experimental rodents or primates with protein antigens derived from Streptococcus mutans or Streptococcus sobrinus against oral colonization by mutans streptococci and the development of dental caries. Protection has been attributed to salivary IgA antibodies which can inhibit sucrose...

OBJECTIVE Increasing the accuracy of the diagnosis of Sjögren's syndrome (SS) by placing emphasis on objective findings such as the presence of anti-Ro and anti-La autoantibodies and abnormal salivary gland tissue (SGT) histology is a current issue. In order to obtain optimal disease sensitivity and specificity of SGT findings, histological and immunohistological SGT examinations were compared....