The 80% mortality rate of pancreatic-cancer (PC) makes early diagnosis a challenge. Oral fluids (OF) may be considered the ultimate body fluid for non-invasive examinations. We have developed techniques to improve visualization of minor OF proteins thereby overcoming major barriers to using OF as a diagnostic fluid. The aim of this study was to establish […]
Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is characterized by a spontaneous and chronic sensation of burning in the oral mucosa, with no apparent signs. The underlying pathophysiological and neuropathic mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we attempt to elucidate some of these mechanisms using proteomic profiling and bioinformatic analyses of whole-saliva (WS) from BMS patients compared to WS from […]
Salivary glands (SGs) are irreversibly damaged by irradiation (IR) treatment in head and neck cancer patients. Here, we used an animal irradiation model to investigate and define the molecular mechanisms affecting SGs following IR, focusing on saliva proteome and global transcription profile of submandibular salivary gland (SSG) tissue. We show that saliva secretion was gradually […]
Objective. SS is an autoimmune exocrinopathy affecting 1 million patients in the USA that is diagnosed mostly in middle-aged women. Oral fluids (OFs) serving as the mirror of the body were suggested as an ideal non-invasive diagnostic tool. Previously we developed depletion techniques for OF high-abundance proteins to increase visualization of low-abundance proteins. Therefore the […]
Isolation of highly pure specific cell types is crucial for successful adult stem cell-based therapy. As the number of such cells in adult tissue is low, an extremely efficient method is needed for their isolation. Here, we describe cell-separation methodologies based on magnetic-affinity cell sorting (MACS) Micro-Beads with monoclonal antibodies against specific membrane proteins conjugated […]
BACKGROUND: Recently, interest in finding disease bio-markers in human body fluids including oral fluids (OF), mainly saliva has increased. However, the physiologic differences in salivary proteins according to gender and age should be explored to establish a clinical diagnostic tool. OBJECTIVE: To compare OF protein expression according to gender and age, using proteomic approaches. MATERIALS […]
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine whether triple depletion of salivary-a-amylase (sAA), albumin (Alb) and immunoglobulins G (IgGs) may improve the visualization capability of proteins in twodimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) of oral fluids (OF). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Oral fluids from healthy volunteers were subjected sequentially to sAA removing device followed by application […]
OBJECTIVES: (i) To determine whether salivary cortisol and electrolyte levels differ between patients with Sjogren’s syndrome (SjS) and healthy individuals. (ii) To assess correlations between whole-saliva cortisol and some clinical manifestations in patients with SjS. METHODS: A total of 24 healthy women (mean age 49.3 ± 9.8) served as controls (C) vis-a-vis 17 patients with […]
Adult salivary gland stem cells are promising candidates for cell therapy and tissue regeneration in cases of irreversible damage to salivary glands in head and neck cancer patients undergoing irradiation therapy. At present, the major restriction in handling such cells is their relatively limited life span during in vitro cultivation, resulting in an inadequate experimental […]
Oral fluids (OF) have been suggested as a source of biomarkers for oral and systemic health, but as with other bio-fluids, the presence of high-abundance proteins interferes with the detection of lower-abundance biomarkers. Here, we compared the performance of four depletion treatments: triple depletion (TD) of amylases, albumins and immunoglobulin G; multiple depletion (MD) of […]
Proteomic characterization of human whole saliva for the identification of diseasespecific biomarkers is guaranteed to be an easy-to-use and powerful diagnostic tool for defining the onset, progression and prognosis of human systemic diseases and, in particular, oral diseases. The high abundance of proteins, mainly alpha amylase, hampers the detection of low abundant proteins appearing in […]
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the salivary protein profile in patients with Sjo¨ gren’s syndrome (SS), and healthy control subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Unstimulated whole saliva samples were collected from 16 age-matched females; eight healthy subjects and eight patients diagnosed with SS (six primary SS, one incomplete SS and one primary SS associated with B cell lymphoma). […]
