Abstract
The study was conducted to determine thiocyanate (SCN-) and hypothiocyanite (OSCN-) concentrations in resting (RWS) and stimulated whole saliva (SWS) and stimulated parotid saliva (SPS) of 20 healthy young adults aged 21-29 y. Samples of saliva were collected at 12 : 30, immediately before lunch. Resting saliva was collected by expectoration, and stimulated saliva was collected during the uniform chewing of paraffin wax. Parotid secretion was collected using a modified Carlsson-Crittenden cup (Carlsson et al., Am, J. Physiol., 26, 169-177, 1910). SCN- concentration was determined by the ferric nitrate method (Betts et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 75, 5721-5727, 1953) whilst OSCN- was assayed using 2-mercaptoethanol as a reducing agent (Pruitt et al., Caries Res., 16, 315-323, 1982). In RWS, SWS and SPS, the mean SCN- concentrations (in mM) were 1.48±0.59 (S.D.), 0.90±0.56 (S.D.) and 1.24±0.65 (S.D.) whilst the mean OSCN- concentrations (in μM) were 31.21±13.54 (S.D.), 24.90±12.61 and 30.19±23.35 (S.D.) in the respective salivas. The presence of OSCN- in the secretion collected from the parotid gland supported previous findings by Tenovuo and Pruitt (Tenovuo et al., J. Oral Path, ol. 13, 573-584, 1984), who suggested an endogenous glandular (eukaryotic) source of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), since parotid saliva from healthy glands is devoid of bacteria and leukocytes.
