Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e dell'Ambiente, Università di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
J Proteomics. 2013 Oct 8;91:536-43. doi: 10.1016/j.jprot.2013.08.009. Epub 2013 Aug 20.
During the first year of life the infant oral environment undergoes dramatic changes. To investigate how the salivary proteome of human children evolves during infant development we have analyzed whole saliva of 88 children aged between 0 and 48months by a top-down platform based on RP-HPLC-ESI-MS. Children were divided according to their age into five groups (A, 0-6months, N=17; B, 7-12months, N=14; C, 13-24months, N=32; D, 25-36months, N=16; E, 37-48months, N=9). The proteins and peptides analyzed were histatins (histatin-1, histatin-3 1/24), acidic proline-rich proteins, statherin, P-B peptide, and salivary cystatins. Protein and peptide quantification based on the area of the RP-HPLC-ESI-MS extracted ion current peak evidenced that: (i) concentrations of the major salivary proteins/peptides showed a minimum in the 0-6-month-old group and increased with age; (ii) the level of histatin-1 reached a maximum in the 7-12-month-old group, a minimum in the 13-24-month-aged babies and it increased again in the 25-36-month-old group; (iii) S-type cystatins were almost undetectable in the 0-6-month-old group; (iv) P-B peptide concentration greatly increased with age; (v) histatin-3 1/24 and statherin concentrations did not show any age-related variation.
The top-down proteomic approach undertaken in this work reveals that the salivary proteome of human children from birth to 48months of age shows important quantitative modifications. The concentrations of the major salivary proteins, with the exception of statherin and histatin-3 1/24, showed a minimum in the 0-6-month-old group when the expression in salivary glands is probably not fully activated. Concentrations of the salivary proteins slowly increased with age, with different trends. Only histatin-1 showed the highest concentration in the 7-12-month-old group, followed by a decrease in the 13-24-month-aged children. This particular trend could be related to the phenomenon of eruption of primary dentition. This study gives a contribution to the knowledge on the physiological variability occurring in human saliva during the early childhood. It could represent a strong and reliable basis for further investigation of saliva to develop diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers.
在生命的第一年，婴儿的口腔环境发生了巨大的变化。为了研究儿童唾液蛋白质组在婴儿发育过程中是如何演变的，我们通过基于 RP-HPLC-ESI-MS 的自上而下平台分析了 88 名 0-48 月龄儿童的全唾液。根据年龄将儿童分为五组（A，0-6 个月，N=17；B，7-12 个月，N=14；C，13-24 个月，N=32；D，25-36 个月，N=16；E，37-48 个月，N=9）。分析的蛋白质和肽是组蛋白（组蛋白-1、组蛋白-3 1/24）、酸性富含脯氨酸的蛋白质、斯他丁、P-B 肽和唾液胱抑素。基于 RP-HPLC-ESI-MS 提取离子电流峰面积的蛋白质和肽定量表明：（i）主要唾液蛋白/肽的浓度在 0-6 个月龄组最低，随年龄增长而增加；（ii）组蛋白-1 的水平在 7-12 个月龄组达到最高，在 13-24 个月龄婴儿中达到最低，在 25-36 个月龄组再次增加；（iii）S 型胱抑素在 0-6 个月龄组几乎无法检测到；（iv）P-B 肽浓度随年龄增长而大大增加；（v）组蛋白-3 1/24 和斯他丁浓度与年龄无关。
本工作采用自上而下的蛋白质组学方法表明，从出生到 48 个月的人类儿童的唾液蛋白质组显示出重要的定量修饰。除斯他丁和组蛋白-3 1/24 外，主要唾液蛋白的浓度在 0-6 个月龄组最低，此时唾液腺的表达可能尚未完全激活。随着年龄的增长，唾液蛋白的浓度缓慢增加，呈不同趋势。只有组蛋白-1在 7-12 个月龄组达到最高浓度，随后在 13-24 个月龄儿童中降低。这种特殊趋势可能与乳牙萌出现象有关。本研究为了解人类唾液在幼儿期发生的生理变化提供了新的认识。它可以为进一步研究唾液以开发诊断和预后生物标志物提供强有力的可靠基础。
